Overview

I reported the Emergency Red Cord had bee severed in two places and the toilet seat had been vandalised to the Garden Centre staff. One week later I returned to the Garden Centre and on my visit to the disabled toilet neither the Emergency Red Cord or the toilet seat had bee repaired. I approached a staff member who informed me that the Emergency Red Cord was lying on a shelf in the kitchen as no one was sure what the cord was for !! I wrote to the Garden Centre and got a reply from the Assistant Manager who was so blasé and unsympathetic about the toilet I decided to write to head office asking for my complaint to be taken seriously. I got a reply from the Garden Centre Manager at 21:40pm apologising unreservedly for the total breakdown in communication between his staff and Management at Kelso Garden Centre. He also apologised for his Assistant Managers disgusting letter and informed me she was spoken to and admitted the reply to myself was not acceptable. He agreed with me as there had been an awareness issue as to what the red cord was for, he will be contacting the training department to arrange awareness training for all his staff. I also asked why the cleaners did not pick up that the toilet seat was defective and the Emergency cord was missing, he informed me his cleaners have a check list that does include, toilet, Red Cord, Door Locks, Lights etc but yet again they had not done there job properly. The Manager informed me he had called all staff who were working the following day to come in an hour early so to have a team meeting reminding them of their responsibilities. I thanked him for his honesty and his course of action as the Red Cord is vital to a disabled person who depends on the cord to summon for help in an emergency.

Transport & Parking

There are very few Disabled parking bays for such a new building which is very disappointing. There is a vast car park with lots of parking space for abled bodied people. There is no public transport to the Garden Centre and it is a good 30 minute walk from the bus stop to the actual venue

Access

The access and egress was fine, large automatic sliding doors more than ample for a disabled person in a chair to get through. It is well signed and all on one level with no lifts required, There was no wheel chairs visible for a disabled person to borrow as the venue was quite large to get about.

Toilets

As I described earlier in the review the toilets were the main problem.

Staff

The staff were very good, polite and very helpful and could not do enough for you.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

I would recommend the garden centre to people as the food is very good and reasonably priced. The place is very clean and there is never a table in need of clearing for very long. I would visit again as long as the toilets had been repaired.

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