Changing Places Case Study: Carter’s Park

Written by Kit Garrett
September 6, 2023

Home to the Holbeach Food Festival, Carter’s Park in Spaulding, Lincolnshire is an important asset in its community. Thanks to funding from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, it’s now accessible to even more people, following to the construction of a modular Changing Places toilet.

A Long History

Carter’s Park is named after Herbert Carter, a landowner who gifted the space to the town nearly 100 years ago. Facilities at the park have expanded over the years and now encompass a children’s play area, bandstand, football and bowls clubs, and much more besides. Since 2014 it has also played host to the Holbeach Food Festival, an annual event regularly drawing over 3000 people to this idyllic little patch of Lincolnshire.

Wanting to open up the Park and its many amenities to disabled people with complex needs, South Holland District Council felt it was time to install a modular Changing Places toilet.

Changing Places are accessible restrooms that go beyond the spec of a standard disabled toilet. By law, in order to qualify as a Changing Place, the toilet must have an adult-size changing bed, a height-adjustable sink, a peninsular toilet, grabrails, hooks for clothing, a regularly maintained hoist system (for safe transfer around the room from wheelchairs), and a privacy screen among other requirements. They provide almost everything a disabled person with complex needs, like muscular dystrophy, requires in order to use the bathroom safely and with dignity.

Open Your Park To New Opportunities

Working In Partnership

South Holland District Council contracted RISE to complete these works, following a competitive bidding process. Once contracts were signed, our turnkey service snapped into gear. After completing our initial surveys, we presented the client with options on location and ensured all utilities could be safely exposed and connected.

Moving into fabrication, we worked together with the Council to pick the right exterior finish, flooring, and an image for their feature wall that would really pop and show off the best that the park has to offer. As all of our modular pod systems are built offsite, this kept disruption in the park to a minimum; an absolute must in a busy environment where children and families are a consistent feature.

Between groundworks and installation, our team spent less than a week on-site, delivering an entirely new building in a fraction of the time of a traditional build – and at a significant cost saving, with no compromises in quality or durability.

Future-Proofing For Accessible Tourism

With Carter’s Park playing host to such a wide variety of different sports and one-off events, it’s really important that as many people can be included as possible. With the installation of this new CPT, South Holland District Council has not only made a difference to the lives of the 250,000 people who need them in order to live their lives with dignity, they’ve also made the Park a much more attractive destination for the families and carers of disabled people across the country.

‘We really enjoyed working with RISE on this project,’ said Adrian Sibley, Deputy Chief Executive for Programme Delivery at South Holland District Council. ‘They made the process very easy from start to finish, and the end result is something we’re very proud of.’

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