A wheelchair user resorted to ringing 999 after he was stuck in a disabled toilet for more than an hour.

Phil Plant, 69, of Glen Vine, fell on to the floor when one of the support handles inside the disabled toilet broke off, leaving him stuck between his chair and the toilet bowl.

He pulled the toilet’s emergency cord but no help arrived.

On Friday, Mr Plant, who has been living with multiple sclerosis for more than 20 years, needed to use the facilities at the bottom of Chester Street car park, which are owned and operated by the Department of Infrastructure.

He said: ‘I was on my way to Markwell House [where a number of government services are located] and decided to pop in to the toilets at the Chester Street car park.

‘I can use my special key to open the door to the disabled toilet.

‘It’s quite a squeeze but I went in and locked the door, reversed in and left enough room for me to put my wheelchair flaps up. I got out and put my feet on the floor and stood up and did a 360-degree turn, ready to lower myself on to the toilet seat.’

When putting his weight on the left support handle, it broke off the wall, causing Mr Plant to fall on the wet floor.

He said: ‘I went to pull the arm rests down, tried to get myself up and the first one went “bang”. It had broken off the wall.

‘I looked and there was only small screws holding it on.’

Mr Plant had fallen between his wheelchair and the toilet bowl, leaving him in a difficult position, but able to reach the red emergency cord.

He said: ‘The worst thing about it all was I saw a red cord in the corner and managed to scrape myself over to it, which was extraordinarily sore to do.

‘I pulled the cord and thought “ah great”, but nothing happened, no light or nothing.

‘Then the lights went out in the toilet and it went completely dark and I couldn’t see.’

The alarm cord at the Chester Street toilet is not linked to any external system and does not call for aid. It is designed to sound an alarm and activate a light outside the toilet to alert passers-by.

After a long period of time in the dark, Mr Plant heard people talking and started to shout to raise attention.

He said: ‘I could hear people talking outside or in the toilet next door. I was shouting and shouting and nobody could hear me.’

Eventually, Mr Plant used his mobile phone to ring the police.

He said: ‘I phoned the police so they could give me direction on what to do.

‘They were very helpful and they told me they were sending paramedics and the fire brigade.’

The paramedics were able to open the door and assist Mr Plant back in to his chair.

‘They wanted to take me to hospital and I said I couldn’t,’ Mr Plant said.

‘I’ve been to hospital before for the same type of problems and you just sit there and wait. I’d prefer to be at home in my own comfort.’

Describing the whole ordeal, Mr Plant said: ‘I felt terrible [in the toilet], especially now we’ve got this new Disabled Act, and this just shows that not a lot of it is in force because there’s still lots of things wrong.

‘I hope somebody looks at this and thinks this is bad.

‘I don’t know who I’d go to in way of ministers who are in charge. I don’t even know who they are because it is changing and swapping, I don’t know if half of them know what they’re doing themselves.

fourth class

‘Something has got to be done, definitely. You can’t have disabled people as third or fourth class.’

Mr Plant said he has had minor issues in the past but never as ‘terrible’ as this. He said: ‘Doors opening the wrong way really annoys me, you press a button and the door opens towards you and the next one goes away from you, it’s back to front!

‘You’ve got to sit in a wheelchair to see the problems, see the problems I see every day, every single day there’s a problem somewhere and if you’re just an ordinary walking person you wouldn’t notice them.

‘When you’re in a wheelchair you’ve got to look at everything, how you’re going to do this, how you’re going to do that.

A spokesman for the public estates and housing division of the Department of Infrastructure told the Manx Independent it was ‘sorry to hear of this incident and for any distress caused to Mr Plant’.

They added: ‘Officers were made aware after the event through a call from the ambulance crew who had attended, but at the time were not aware of his personal details, so were unable to make contact directly.

‘The facilities are cleaned and checked regularly throughout the day and any issues reported are acted on accordingly.

‘ On learning of the incident, a maintenance operative attended urgently to repair the handrail and reset the alarm call.’

The department confirmed that the incident is under review with health and safety colleagues to ensure that any remedial action required is identified and implemented.