IT’S a shame that Cllr Joshua Phillips, chair of Solva Community Council, didn’t take some time to find out more about Radar keys before his letter to the editor last week.

The Radar key scheme is a long-standing national initiative which provides disabled people with a special key to unlock more than 9,000 accessible toilets across the UK.

It is not, as Cllr Phillips asserts, a scheme introduced by Pembrokeshire County Council, but coordinated by the national organisation Disability Rights UK.

The aim is to provide people with a health condition or a disability (particularly wheelchair users) with priority access to a toilet which is clean, tidy and available.

The first Radar toilet opened in 1981 and since then, hundreds of local authorities and thousands of businesses have adopted the scheme across the UK. Radar toilets can be found in shopping centres, pubs, bus and train stations, and other locations nationwide.

A National Key Scheme guide is produced annually with details of where each Radar toilet is in Britain.

There is also a smartphone app.

Pembrokeshire County Council sells Radar keys at £2.95 from its customer service centres and tourist and information centres.

Cllr Phillips suggests in his letter that the Radar key scheme is “actually a breach of accessibility laws and discrimination against the disabled”.

I am happy to inform him that we have had confirmation from the Equality Advice Support Service, on behalf of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, that the service is not discriminatory against disabled people.

CLLR KEITH LEWIS

Cabinet Member for Economy and Communities