Overview

So change of ownership in 2015. Peebles Hydro new management has no disability awareness. The new Disabled parking space are away from the entrance on the wrong side of the drive way backing onto a steep slope. The lounge area is an obstacle course of badly place furniture making it impossible to move around safely, and due to the lack of free flow from the lounge, the sun lounge area is completely out of bounds. The seating is not disable friendly with mostly seating that's too low, with few with arms, most with little or no back support. The disabled changing room/toilet in the pool area is now joint family changing room, so as the hydro is swapped with children there is no easy access to disabled changing facilities. Despite there being all the family facilities in both male and female changing areas. The dining room now has family tables mix throughout the area, there is no safe corner for those with mobility issues, the tables for 2 are too low and the chairs have no support

Transport & Parking

Disabled spaces, are on the opposite side of the drive to the entrance, they back on to the sloop of the garden, so impossible at reverse into if you need safe access to the boot. If you park nose first then getting access means you are out into the driveway and vulnerable to cars driving up to the hotel. The spaces are not directly in front of the entrance but off to the side, meaning a greater walking distance. Poor and unsafe basically

Access

Yes there was a lift, which is poorly sign posted, there is little seating available to rest, the stairs now have candles along the banister, which is unsafe. The lounge area and sun longue are out of bounds due to the clutter of furniture in the longue, it was difficult to impossible to use, or sit safely and definitely not wheelchair friendly, a complete nightmare for me and I can walk, but with balance and special awareness problems.

Toilets

I wasn't aware of any disabled toilets in the main public area, so poorly sign post if any at all. And I did look

Staff

Angus who supervises the dining room was superb and had a great understanding of disability and needs, very helpful and make a huge effort to make things easier for me. Reception - to check that my requests had been processed we arrived early, 3 hours later reception still hadn't confirmed that my needs (simple ones) had been delivered with the room. We had late access to the room, very stressed out by the lack of confirmation by reception. Beauty therapy room, the first therapist showed a total lack of care of understanding - left me stranded

Anything else you wish to tell us?

Since the changes 2015 - this hydro has gone from being disable friendly to disabled unfriendly. There is a basic lack of awareness from the new management. This is such a shame as it previously was a haven for those less abled bodied, where the old management actually try new things out with the help of somebody who uses a wheelchair. Now its only for kids and I would not be going back in its current form as I really felt excluded and unsafe in the current environment