Tesco in Lewes criticised for not being "disability friendly"

Alison Wilkin visited the Lewes Tesco branch in September 2021 and asked staff why there wasn't a mirror in the disabled toilet. She said their response was it was not possible because there was a lack of space on the loo walls and that it would be too expensive to put one up.

Alison explained: "They told me it was not possible because there was too much already on the walls, but there was certainly space on one wall and the Portslade branch has a mirror on the back of the door and it is a much smaller toilet.

"I told them that they were causing people with disabilities/old age to feel like second class citizens if they were not allowed to tidy themselves before leaving the toilet."

Alison gave the Brookes Road store until the end of December to hang a mirror before reporting the incident to the Sussex Express.

She added: "At the beginning of December, nothing had been done about it so I again took my complaint to the store and to head office, both said identically they had not been told about the complaint – which was obviously untrue – and it would be looked into but it was not possible due to being too expensive.

"The answer of being too expensive does not really ring true when Tesco sells mirrors in some of their stores."

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We will be installing a mirror specifically for our disabled toilet in our Lewes Superstore this week.”

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