AFTER a year-long campaign a mum has won her battle to get a special toilet for disabled customers installed as part of a £50million shopping centre redevelopment.

The Orchard Centre in Didcot has agreed to open a so-called 'changing places' toilet for people with profound physical disabilities to use, according to campaigner Karen England.

The mother-of-three said the change will 'make such a difference' to the life of her 14-year-old daughter Tamsin, who has cerebral palsy.

With a hoisting system, the facility is bigger than a disabled toilet and has an adult-size changing bench.

But the Orchard Centre will become only the second location in Didcot – after the Cornerstone Arts Centre – and one of only a handful in the whole of Oxfordshire to have one of the toilets.

Mrs England said that 'progress is still painfully slow' in her campaign to get all major shops to cater for everyone.

The 46-year-old said: "There are only a few places where we can go out without having to come home early.

"Everywhere we go, we have to check where the nearest toilet would be.

"Why should we have to traipse around just to go for a wee?

"They are not compulsory although they should be.

"It feels discriminatory."

The 95,000sqft expansion of the Orchard Centre began in May and is due to be completed in spring 2018.

A quarter of a million people need access to changing places toilets in order to take part in day-to-day activities.

But there are only just over 1,000 of the facilities in the whole of the UK, with a small number of motorway services and large supermarkets offering one.

Earlier this year, the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee published a report calling on the government to consider making changing places a mandatory requirement in any large public developments.

Mrs England, a full time carer who lives in Wantage but regularly shops in Didcot, said: "To put it in perspective, there are more toilets in Wembley stadium than there are changing places toilets in the whole of the UK.

"We've been told there's no plans to install them at the redevelopments at Castle Quay in Banbury and Bicester Village.

"The new Westgate does have one but it needs to be better signposted.

"You shouldn't be able to spend that amount of money and not cater for everybody.

"Usually when you bring it to the attention of these people they say 'of course we should be doing this sort of thing.'

"But everything has to be fought for."

Hammerson, the developer for the Orchard Centre, did not respond to a request for comment.