A woman who cares for her disabled mother criticised St Johns Market after she struggled to find a disabled toilet.
Alison Stokes, 45, from Everton, cares full time for her mum Margaret Stokes, 66, who uses a wheelchair and suffers from reflux.
Margaret and Alison had gone to the city centre market but struggled to access the disabled toilets.
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Alison told the ECHO : “My mum suffers with something called reflux, which means that she sometimes ends up vomiting when food goes down.”
“I took her to the disabled toilets in St Johns Market, but the door was locked and the other door to the main toilets said ‘staff only’."
Alison struggled to find accessible toilets for her mum, finding the experience stressful.
After her experience, Alison complained to Liverpool City Council, which runs St Johns Market.
In response, she was told that the upstairs disabled toilets at the shopping centre had been closed for some time due to anti-social behaviour.
The ECHO understands anti-social behaviour left the toilets in an unsafe and unhealthy condition.
Alison was told the council made the decision to close the disabled toilet in the market as there are disabled toilets located in St Johns Precinct, described to her as being within a five minute walk away.
She said: "What if you’ve got cerebral palsy or IBS? It’s a long way to get there."
When contacted for comment by the ECHO, a spokesperson for Liverpool City Council said: “The markets team has already responded to an official complaint made by Miss Stokes in February.
“The team apologised for the lack of disabled toilets on the upper floor of the market, but details were given of an alternative option on the lower floor."
They added: "Due to anti-social behaviour, the disabled toilets on the upper level have been closed for a number of years. As part of our current market review, we will provide new signage to indicate where the operational disabled toilet is located.”
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