More lowered curbs please
3
3
Date of visit: February 2026
I am a disabled person. I have experience of challenges around: a hidden impairment and moving around.
Overall Rating
Average
The services at Charnock Richard have an interesting setup, where the buildings on either side of the motorway are connected via the first floor. I stopped on the southbound side and was pleased to find the bathrooms close to the entrance, but a lot of the food outlets that had been advertised (all but Subway) were actually on the other side of the motorway! There is an escalator going up and a small lift going both directions, but getting to the other side obviously involves quite a bit of distance, so I did not check it out this time.
Disabled Access In and Around
Average
There are two automatic sliding doors on the front of the building, but when I visited, the one on the left was blocked off with a bench, so people could only use the one on the right. There are aligned automatic sliding doors on the other side of a small vestibule. There is some low carpet in the vestibule and smooth tile in the rest of the building. There is a corridor to the left immediately after the vestibule, which has the door to the toilets and showers on its right side. In front of you and slightly to the left is a seating area with chairs and tables associated with Subway, which is around to the right as you enter. Ahead and slightly to the right is WHSmith, which has very wide aisles in the middle, but only narrow pathways at the top and bottom. You can borrow a RADAR key there if you do not have your own. (At least that is what it says on the sign on the accessible bathrooms.) There is an escalator going up between the corridor to the bathrooms and the seating area. There is also a small lift towards the back of the main space and around to the left. The lift call button is to the right of the door. The buttons on the inside are on the left. The symbols on the buttons are raised, light up and there are Braille markings on them. There are handrails to either side of the buttons, but not on the right side of the lift. You enter and exit on the same side and there was not enough space for me to turn. There is no mirror. There are some round picnic tables with attached benches at the front of the building that do not leave spaces for wheelchair users. There are some more rectangular picnic tables by the accessible parking spaces on the left that only have benches on the long sides, so a wheelchair user could pull up sideways at the short side of the table. (There is no space to get legs underneath because of the table legs.)
Accessible facilities: Lift to all areas, Step-free entrance
Parking & Transport
Average
I travelled to this place by personal vehicle
There are two sets of three Blue Badge parking spaces on either side of the front entrance, although the electric vehicle charging points are even closer than the accessible parking spaces on the left side. (I will review the EV chargers separately.) Unfortunately, there is a noticeable lack of lowered curbs around the disabled parking. While there are marked walkways to help navigate the parking lot as a pedestrian, they lead to high curbs and wheelchair users end up having to share space with cars after all.
Accessible facilities: Electric Vehicle Charging, Dedicated on-site parking
Accessible Toilets
Average
Charnock Richard Services has 2 accessible bathrooms. They are located down a corridor to the left as you enter and unlocked with a RADAR key. You can get a key from staff at WHSmith, ahead and slightly to the right as you enter The door opens to the outside left and there is no handle on the outside. The door is manual. The door locks by lifting up the lever handle. There is a horizontal grab rail on the inside of the door as well as two coat hooks at different heights. The toilet is at the back wall. There is space for a right-side transfer. There is a vertical grab rail on the wall and a moveable horizontal one to the left of the toilet and a fixed horizontal handrail on the wall to the right of the toilet. The flush is a spatula lever, located on the side of the cisternon the side of the transfer space. The toilet roll dispenser is on the wall left of the toilet. There is a red emergency cord to the right of the toilet that reaches all the way to the floor. There is a small wall-mounted sink on the left as you enter that has a mixer tap. There are vertical handrails on the wall on either side of the sink. The soap dispenser is mounted on the wall to the right of the sink. There is a hand dryer mounted on the wall to the left of the sink and no paper towel dispenser. There is a mirror above the sink. There is a large footpedal bin in the back right corner, taking up about half of the transfer space. There is no colostomy shelf. There is also a wall-mounted baby change on the right as you come in.
Facilities: Accessible toilet
Staff
I did not interact with staff.
