Disgust at change facilities

A Bertram mother has claimed she was told to change her one-year-old girl on a public bench at the new Kwinana Marketplace, after discovering its parent room was not ready for use.

Natasha White visited the newly-opened shopping centre on Friday to do her weekly shopping when she realised her one-year-old daughter Emma needed her nappy changed.

‘‘I had gone to Big W and I noticed that my daughter needed changing so I went to go and find the facilities and I found the parent room but it was locked,’’ she said.

The mother-of-two said she visited centre management on two occasions and was told by two separate staff members the facilities were not ready and her only option was to change her daughter on a bench.

‘‘I don’t like changing my kids in public,’’ she said.

‘‘I am upset, I am distraught because I had to go back to the car to change my daughter and I don’t have the facilities in my car to change my kids, so it is annoying and it has put me off my shopping.

‘‘I’m disgusted — they should have had something. At least a change table.’’

Diploma project manager Richard King said the construction of the parent room was delayed because of a ‘‘sequencing issue’’.

‘‘The main source of power for the area was located there so we could not commence work on the area until August,’’ he said.

‘‘The parent room will hopefully be complete by the end of the week. If not it will be the following week.’’