Public Toilets

[Daisy]

It seems public loos are becoming rarer as local Councils close them down to save money. So what happens if you're out shopping, say, and need to "go"? The solution is often to pop into a cafe, but what if you don't want a cup of coffee or a snack. Should you be allowed to use the cafe's facilities for free?

There is a public toilet block just across the road from my DS2's and DIL2's shop. It's in reasonably good condition, but that's probably because it's often closed! The public toilets in our village are situated right in the middle of the car park (ridiculous planning, but that's another story!) and are a stark, stainless steel, miserable place designed to stand up to the abuse of a herd of rampaging rhinos, but are usually open.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj48571qq7vo

[Lizzie48]

Daisy, we don't have public toilets here, very occasionally a city will have them, but, not very often. With my bladder problem I have a card, most shops and restaurants then allow me to use the toilets. If they don't accept the card I pay 50 cent, they are usually very clean. The toilets in the petrol stations along the motorways charge 70 cent, for that money they are kept spotless. We get a voucher back for the same amount to spend in the shop though! Always too expensive, I have worked in them so I know how it works!!!

[Grauntie Mag]

Hmmm. DD2 has a bowel condition and is an expert at charging into anywhere to avail herself of the facilities. I don’t think she has been refused yet!

[Plantaholic]

My OH had a prostate problem and on car journeys he would stop in a lay-by and hop over the fence. One day he was gone longer than usual and when he showed up he had a hole in his jumper and a disheveled look.

[Oma]

My brother had Diverticulitis and carried a card , he showed it in shops to be allowed to use their facilities,
I don't think there was a time he was refused, all places seemed accomodating.

We don't have public loos that I know of now ,
In our shopping mall Sainsbury's have toilets behind the checkouts that anyone can use the same as Asda,
Apart from them there are none.

[Nanto2girls]

I heard about the lack of public loos,this morning on the news.
In our new market hall there are loos upstairs and downstairs.
Both male and female facilities are always very clean.
In the shopping mall the loos in there are also very clean.
I don't know if there are anymore in our town, apart from cafe's and pubs.

[Gemini]

I think we do have public loos, but I can't think where they are!

I would use a loo in shop with a cafe if I needed. Shops with cafes have to have toilets, and no one cares if you don't use the cafe because they presume you are shopping in the store.

[Clover]

In our bus station you need to spend 30 p to spend a penny! Tesco or M and S are my “go tos”!😀

[Daisy]

Clover, that reminds me of a public outcry when the toilets at Waterloo Station upped their charges, I think it was to 50p. It's now free, but the cynic in me wonders if that cost is buried somewhere in the price of rail tickets or a cup of tea!

Gem, the large Waterstones in Southampton has a cafe - I've never checked if they have toilets as well. They do in John Lewis, M&S etc.

Nanto, your new market hall sounds very civilised. What a pleasure to always find clean loos.

My DIL2 says they sometimes get people coming in to their shop with a card and it's no problem, although she says she then wishes she'd cleaned it that morning!

[WeeGranny]

I know at one point West Somerset Council were talking about shutting the public loos to save money which seemed a daft idea especially in an area where tourists were necessary to bring in revenue. It's been a long time since I was down there, so don't know if it actually happened. But you do have to wonder the mentality of the people making these decisions. Where do they expect people to go ?

There are toilets in the big shopping mall in town, but I've never used them.

I know in my home town in Scotland, the toilets were closed, but the running of them has now been taken over by volunteers, much to the relief of the locals!

[Daisy]

WeeGranny, it seems as though quite a lot of services are nowadays performed by volunteers. But a serious 'well done' to those who volunteer to clean public loos. Litter picking seems to be left to volunteers around our way, although I do think we need a massive campaign to make dropping litter as unacceptable as drink-driving, or not wearing a seat belt.

[Lizzie48]

Daisy, it is the same here with litter! It annoys me, coming home from a friend the other day, on the slip road onto the A4 there is a bend, I couldn't believe how much rubbish there was on the grass, there is a McDonalds close by but I doubt if it all comes from there, there are volunteers here in the village, this morning actually, I often see them and whilst I think it is a good thing to do, it would be even better to get everyone to stop dropping litter!!

[Daisy]

Lizzie, some countries seem to have less of a problem. I can't understand the mentality of people who think it's ok to throw their rubbish on the ground. I was walking Eva in quite an isolated part of the Forest the other day and saw a large (5 litre?) water bottle in a clump of bracken. I would have liked to have picked it up but didn't have a bag for it, and would have had to take it home as there is no longer a bin in the car park. Goodness knows what it had been used for!!!

[Oma]

We have quite a few fast food outlets and the rubbish that gets thrown from car windows is a disgrace.
There is a young lady who comes out no matter what the weather and clears up every day ,
A thankless task but she does it .
You don't see litter pickers or road sweepers these days,
We will occasionally get a road sweeper in our cul- de- sac but that's usually if there is some kind of inspection going on or councillors are wanting votes ,

People just don't care and it's not just the young,
I think I have told this story before of when we were outside of Asda and a old lady opened her bag emptied all her old tissues and stuff onto the ground then opened a pack of cigarettes and threw the wrapper on the ground, she was right next to a litter bin.
When a man reproached her about it he got a load off abuse.

[Plantaholic]

I was parked on the green picking up some shopping and two boys with bikes were drinking from plastic bottles. One of the boys threw his bottle on the ground so I approached him to suggest he picked it up, which he refused. I persisted and the other boy with him could see I wasn’t going to give up and told him to put it in the bin quite close to them which eventually he did.