Overview

Freeman Quay is a Durham county council leisure center. It is a fairly large center with automatic doors at the entrance of the building as well as a lift to the first floor. Overall it has good wheel chair access and plenty of disabled parking bays less than 30 meters from the entrance. There is a hoist used for both pools, the large and small pool so people arent restricted to what pool they would like to go into. Staff are very friendly and there is someone available to assist if needed.

Transport & Parking

There is disabled parking 30 meters from the entrance of the building. There is also additional parking 50 meters in front of the building, this car park also has disabled parking bays. There is a multi story Car park about 30 meters to the left of the building with lifts taking you to the city centre and a range of restaurants above. There is a bus stop above the car park in the city centre which is easy to access with no stairs or steps to climb.

Access

Very good, there is large automatic doors at the front entrance. There is a lift on the ground floor to the first floor however the lift was fairly small and not very wide so it may be cramped for a large wheelchair and support worker. The signage to the toilets were poor and not very visible however the receptionists were happy to direct me to the toilets. There was some comfy seats and tables in the reception. There was no braille and the notice board signs were in small print and difficult to read.

Toilets

There is two disabled toilets on the ground floor and two located in the gym changing area with an additional two toliets in the swimming pool changing area. Two of the toilets by reception were equipped with a changing bed, a shower area and every disabled toilet had a range of grab rails. There was plenty of room to manoeuvre around the toilet area, it was clean and fit for purpose.

Staff

All staff were very friendly and happy to help customers navigate around the building. They informed me that they are happy to look after guide dogs behind reception while the owner swims.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

There is very good access to the swimming pool area, the changing area is spacious and the access to the pool is easy, without steps. The hoist is located at the front of the pool so you can get straight in after leaving the changing rooms. The toliets are very well equipped and in abundance so there is always somewhere suitable if one or two is in use. I would recommend this centre for people with disabilities. The only issue i encountered was that the upstairs doors to the sports hall and the upstairs disabled toilet has multiple fire doors which are heavy and difficult to open. If these doors were also automatic this would make the centre more accessible for people with disabilities