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Newcastle United are leading the way in facilities for the disabled and to make sure those with medical conditions, including children, can enjoy a match-day. Here the club’s facilities manager Eddie Rutherford, in part three of our feature look at the club’s facilities, explains what the club have done.

“There’s no reason why a child with autism can’t go into the stadium,” Eddie Rutherford, Newcastle’s facilities manager, points out as he opens the door to the club’s brand new sensory room, “But you can’t expect them when they’re frightened of loud noise or open spaces to just come and plonk them in there.”

The club, following the example of other football clubs across the country, have installed a sensory room in the Leazes End of St James’ Park. Having seen examples at the Stadium of Light and at the Emirates, Rutherford wanted to take the initiative that bit further.

“We’ve done it slightly different to other places,” he admitted. “I wanted it so when children with autism go into the room, we want to try and get them so they’re used to coming to the stadium and eventually they’ll go and sit in a seat and enjoy the match.”

The key word is progression. In the room, there are lights and a projector which will help to calm a child down suffering from an episode. Next door to the sensory room, a TV studio has been changed into a space, which Rutherford eventually hopes can see children with autism grow comfortable with the matchday experience.

Looking out onto the pitch, the children sit on the same seats from the terraces, but away from the loud noise and open space which may set an episode off.

“The kids sit here, and the parents sit behind them. That’s so they can used to sitting with other kids and hopefully they make the noise. They’re not in the stadium, so they don’t get to worry about the noise or anything like that but if they do, they can go back into the sensory room.”

The club have also spent the summer improving the match-day experience for those with disabilities, making sure that not only the view of those sitting on the disabled platforms is unrestricted but through the use new toilets and storage cupboards, their whole day is enjoyable.

“Over the last 12 months we’ve been working on accessibility,” Rutherford tells me. “We have done everything that the Premier League requires on this - other people haven’t. Some have a three year plan, we’re finished - we’re done.

(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

“We have now got the required number of disabled seats and the number of accessible seats all in place. We have changed the south and the north stand and you can see when you walk in - the level has been changed, so people sitting on those levels, they can see - it’s been raised so people in wheelchairs, now when somebody stands up in front of them they can still see. Before they couldn’t.

“We’ve added lots more disabled seats on level 7 on the platforms, on the south, north and east stands, we have the seats for people for mobility issues, and that’s all been put in place but on top of that, which is not part of the requirement, we’ve put a wheelchair store in every stand, we’ve put two ‘changing places’ (disable use toilets/wash rooms) in. Again this isn’t a requirement but we thought, ‘if we’re going to put one in the East Stand, it’s not really much good if you’re on level 7’ - so we put one on in there. It’s a really big investment but it’s the right thing to do.

“If we’re going to do all these things, lets do the whole lot in one go. The wheelchair store, if you’re coming in a wheelchair and you want to go and sit in your seat - you will need somewhere to store it, so we said lets build a store.

“We are putting facilities in that are good as any body elses, When people here ‘changing places’, they might just think it’s a room but it’s not, it’s as good as a hospital's. If someone gets here and say they have a colostomy bag, before they’d go to the disabled toilet and try the best they could to change it, but that’s not right. So now we have this.

“The whole point is, everything that anyone needs to do is right here.”

That is the message that the Rutherford wants to get out there, that the club is inclusive of everyone and adding the facilities in, many which go beyond the standard requirement set by the governing bodies, is what the club wants to do so it can welcome everyone to St James’ Park.

“All the things we’ve put in place - for example the accessible counters (at food stalls) we met the requirements but having to go 300 yards to find one, is wrong. So now, all around the ground you will see drop counters even at the betting kiosks, so people in a wheelchair can get to the counter. We’ve also put new signage around the ground to help with the accessibility.

“We’ve done all this in the last 12 months. The seating part you had to comply but all the other things, the changing places or the sensory rooms, were not part of the requirement but it was the right thing to do.

“The feedback has been fantastic. If we’re going to have people coming to the stadium, then we want them to have the facilities to be able to do so.”