Falkirk Council staff slammed after Bo'ness public toilet ordeal

Donna Scotland (51 )of Kinacres Grove used the facility last month in the car park at Farmfoods – but found to her horror that the building’s robust shutter had been pulled down half an hour before the toilet was supposed to close.

Donna, who is a customer services adviser at the Hippodrome, phoned her father, former Falkirk Council worker Richard Pollock, who in turn phoned an emergency number at Falkirk Council – to no avail.

Meanwile his daughter was reduced to crying for help and thankfully her shouts were heeded by two workers from a nearby solicitors.

Police were also summoned to the scene.

However, the building was so heavily secured that the keyholder had to be summoned back to Bo’ness from Blackness to set Donna free.

And when she duly arrived, Donna - who was trapped for 90 minutes in total - was taken aback by her attitude.

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Donna said: “I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t even get an apology. She just said that there had been nobody in for ages.

“My own epilepsy is mild but I had no medication on me. I was lucky I had my phone on my too – I wouldn’t usually take it out with me as I was only popping into the shop – ironically it was to buy toilet paper!”

“Everyone who came to my help was brilliant and you could see the funny side and my son put it on Facebook and we had a bit of a laugh about it .

“However, the truth is that I could have been in there until 9am the next morning if nobody had heard me shout for help.

“You have also got to think what would have happened if this had been a child or an elderly person trapped in there.”

However, the matter has not ended there amidst claims that the toilet attendant was not the only Falkirk Council staff member who was remiss in her dealings with this issue.

For it is also alleged that Donna’s family have been treated with extreme discourtesy by more than one member of staff involved in a complaints procedure.

They decided to contact the Falkirk Herald’s sister paper, The Bo’ness Journal, after being told on Monday that the matter would no longer be investigated and that they should not call again.

However a Falkirk Council spokesman has denied this but added of the incident: “This should not have happened and we are extremely sorry for any distress caused to the person.

“We are taking steps to ensure it never happens again.”