Accessibility?
1
1
Date of visit: December 2025
I am a disabled person and a carer or friend of a disabled person and a general supporter of disabled access. I have experience of challenges around: a hidden impairment, accessing toilets, dexterity or coordination and moving around.
Overall Rating
Bad
Apart from having a disabled bathroom, this place is NOT disability friendly. Thankfully, the staff would run to open the door for me to enter/exit the building, but this is not accessibility!
Disabled Access In and Around
Bad
There is a small but steep ramp to enter/exit the store and this is partially obstructed by bollards that line the car-park. This made turning incredibly awkward when trying to gain access to the reception area. Inside the reception it is very open and easy to maneouver my wheelchair around, however the floor was fairly wet that day and made it quite slippery, so I had to be careful with the wheelchair. There is a row of seats inside that are for public use when waiting for your vehicle and a disabled bathroom is located just inside the entrance, to the left.
Accessible facilities: Step-free entrance, Seating at regular intervals
Parking & Transport
Bad
I travelled to this place by personal vehicle
Halfords Autocentre shares an incredibly small and awkward car park with Screwfix (Both of these are busy with vehicles coming and going, so this was an uncomfortable situation to be in) which resulted in me having to park on the very busy main road outside of the car park. There is only ONE disabled parking space available and this was occupied on my visit here. From where I had to park, there is a pavement and this has a dropped kerb near the roundabout side of it, however you cannot get off the pavement at the store side as there is no dropped kerb, meaning I had to wheel myself along the aforementioned very busy main road. A short distance away are links to public bus services.
Accessible facilities: Public or on street parking
Accessible Toilets
Average
The size of the bathroom was great, I had plenty of space to turn around and transfer, however there were a couple of issues that I noticed. There was a sanitary bin to the side of the toilet, above this is a grab rail and the red emergency cord was wrapped around both of these, making it completely inaccessible from the floor should anyone have an emergency. (I have yet again left a Euans Guide red cord card attached in the hopes this changes for future customers) There is a towel to dry your hands that is fairly difficult to reach as it is close to the door and pretty high up. The only way to reach it from a wheelchair is face-on and dangerously leaning forward out of your wheelchair.
Facilities: Accessible toilet
Staff
Average
Although a member of staff made sure I could gain access to the reception by holding the door open for me, I do feel like I was instantly made a target of when they saw I was in a wheelchair upon my return. Repair costs jumped from £400 to over £900 within a matter of minutes and this is when I decided to leave with my vehicle. I have since sourced repairs elsewhere and it has cost me £400 as I was initially quoted. Do not visit here unless you are knowledgeable enough about mechanics to not get ripped off, or are accompanied by someone who is.
