Great café, difficult for wheelchairs
4
4
Date of visit: February 2019
I am a disabled person. I have experience of challenges around: a hidden impairment, accessing toilets, dexterity or coordination, moving around, seeing, speaking or communicating and understanding.
I use or have experience of: autism, changing places toilet, disabled toilet, sign language, speech impairment
Overall Rating
Good
Only a few Blue Badge parking spots which are difficult to secure. The staff where very friendly and helpful. After not visiting for a while on my most recent visit I was really impressed with how my allergic where catered for in the café and the food tasted lovely - I would defiantly return. Plenty of seating options in the café and we could find a space for my wheelchair to sit at a table. The accessible toilet though they have one it's just about useable depending on your need though it could be fine for other wheelchair users. Accessible loo and the red cord was hanging freely (yay!) and left a Red Cord Card. As well as the café and garden centre there's also a place that sells gifts and bits and bobs, but the aisles and displays left little room for me to get my wheelchair round and me and my carer really struggled to navigate around and there where some places even my narrow wheelchair couldn't get through. (I have contacted the to make them aware of this.)
Disabled Access In and Around
Good
Level access throughout the garden centre. Café was wheelchair friendly though the desk where you placed your order and where you paid wasn't at a lower level though it was difficult to reach the card reader. I could navigate my wheelchair around in the café okay - In some areas of the café the tables and chairs are quite close together but in other parts there is room to manoeuvre around. Staff where helpful in explaining the menu and reading part of it aloud to me. Fully wheelchair accessible outside where the plants etc are though on on occasion I had to wheel over a hosepipe! In the shop part of the garden centre the aisles and displays are very crammed together and it was very difficult in parts for me to manoeuvre my wheelchair around. Signage is good.
Parking & Transport
Poor
There's a few Blue Badge Parking spots but there isn't nearly enough and we couldn't get parked making it difficult with my wheelchair. Level access on the entrance to the store.
Accessible Toilets
Average
Accessible toilet with room to move around in a bit of a squeeze with my carer in the toilet facility with me, Plenty of grab rails. Found the emergency red cord hanging freely to the floor and left a Red Cord Card. It was clean and tidy. There was also no pedal bins which is great when you don't have full use of your legs. There was also a good size clinical waste pin. I found it clean and tidy. It would have been helpful to have had a space to deal with my catheter. The toilets where easy-ish to find.
Staff
Excellent
Staff around the garden centre where friendly and helpful. The café staff where also really helpful when I asked about allergies and suggesting meal options to us and reading parts of the menu aloud to me. The staff where also helpful helping to find and bringing over cutlery and condiments to us. I couldn't fault the café staff at all.
Additional Information
I would recommend the café to others and hopefully someone will get back to me about the layout of the store and will improve this to make it a nice place to visit as there are some lovely things in there. It would also be great if the increased the number of Blue Badge parking spaces. This isn't my first visit and I would visit again. The signage is good, however the print a bit small (though I do have reduced vision). Prices in the café are reasonable. Hand sanitiser at the entrance.
