'Degrading' council plan to build woman's toilet in her living room

A disabled council house tenant who needs a downstairs toilet said she is dismayed it is going to be built in her living room where she eats her meals.

Sandra Robinson, 60, has a number of health conditions which have reduced her mobility, meaning she needs a disabled toilet built downstairs.

But Swansea council said it must go in her living room, where she currently has her dining table and chairs, as using internal space is an "established approach".

Robinson, who has rented the three-bedroom house in Penllergaer for 29 years, said: "I don't fancy eating by a toilet or people listening to me on the toilet."

The grandmother-of-five added: "It's not dignified. It feels degrading."

A council spokesperson said there was enough space, and extensions are a "last resort".

Robinson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service she will have no choice but to rearrange her things to make the most of less space in the open plan living room.

She said: "I want to be able to sit at my table. There's isn't space in the kitchen for it.

"What am I going to do when people are here and I want to go to the toilet?"

Robinson hoped the downstairs toilet could be added to the side of her semi-detached house beyond her kitchen – separated by a lobby – although two sheds would need to come down.

But the council advised her that, following a visit by an occupational therapist and surveyor, her home "benefits from a relatively large open-plan ground floor area".

The spokesperson said: "Whenever the council is looking to complete adaptation works at an existing council property we first assess whether the required adaptation can be accommodated within the existing home.

"The current proposal is therefore to construct a small ground-floor cloakroom within the existing living-dining area.

"This is an established and commonly used approach for delivering disabled facilities grant adaptations where sufficient internal space exists.

"Only where this is not feasible will an extension be considered as a last resort."