Lack of public toilets. (not Trans/GC related)

I agree. Most people who take coke in toilets do it in nightclub toilets, for one thing.
But councils are always likely to blame beggars/drug addicts/gay people for the fact that they don't want to spend money on public facilities.

Personally I think that's bullshit by the way, our uber Tory council justifying cutting funding for the loo.

We used to have some but apparently they were so heavily used for drug abuse the council shut them.

That's what the council reckon. They were monitoring and found extensive cocaine traces.

I think there really ought to be active campaigning for a) more public toilets generally and b) for businesses over a certain size to be legally compelled to let members of the public use their toilet facilities - perhaps extend both the awareness of and the obligation to accept those Can't Wait cards given to people with bowel diseases.
Though I have found, while doing my job, that the little independent cafe is actually more likely to let you use the loo than fucking tax dodging coffee shop chains.
Because the lack of toilets is a genuine, serious public health issue - not just because of the limitations it places on some people's free movement, but because people will excrete in the street if given no other option - "just wait" simply isn't always physically possible.

It really is. I honestly don't get why someone would do that once let alone twice.

The story from the Press & Journal is depressing. 2 small, independent, local business offering a free facility at their expense and it's trashed.

I have plenty of outdoor peeing experience due to hillwalking. The secret is to crouch down as low as you can. The pee doesn't dribble down your legs because they are higher than your arse, and your knickers are round your ankles so they are further forward than the stream of pee, which hits the ground before reaching them. Obviously you pay attention to the slope of the ground when orientating yourself.
However, I don't know a way to do it without exposing the bum, which is not something it is generally a good idea to do in town.
The mechanics aren't a problem - but it is MUCH harder to do it discreetly as a woman than a man, and you are extremely vulnerable while you are doing it. So the lack of toilets is always going to impact more on women than men, quite apart from the fact that we are the ones whose plumbing has gone to pot through pregnancy and childbirth.

"speaking from experience, outdoor peeing, is not that difficult for a girl or a woman if they are wearing a loose skirt."

1. I never wear skirts, loose or otherwise.
2. It is still 'difficult', because the pee is inclined to dribble down your inside legs. Knickers tend to present something of a problem, too.
3. It is still 'difficult' in a fucking town centre, which was the whole context of the OP's thread.

I can't for the life of me think of a solution.

I am a frequent customer of loos when out, and some places are deserts where convenience is concerned.

However, what is to be done about vandals and anti-social behaviour? I once went in a public loo at a US seaside place and all the doors had been removed and the floor was covered with needles. It was beyond grim.

www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeen/1810818/vandals-cause-confusion-by-sticking-unisex-signs-to-stonehaven-toilets-during-spree-of-destruction/amp/?fbclid=IwAR12IVUTL9eLxcaJ5ZX3NpTYdUAB43li_6GkFz2WYEj5xheA38DyVOcmKZM

This is very pertinent.

'The whole strip of where they waited stunk of piss especially in summer but what else could they do?'

Piss in a bottle and take it home or pour it down a drain.
Sorry, I have sympathy for them re the lack of toilets but that was still unnecessary.
As for the poo, leaving human waste around is unacceptable. If dog owners can scoop poo so can bus drivers caught short.

This is worth a read if you have a spare five minutes. The lack of public loos is a huge problem requiring a radical solution.
www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n09/owen-hatherley/the-socialist-lavatory-league

I think it's worse in run down areas too when I used to live in south London a certain area it had no toilets at all to use and the last stop on the bus was by the estate and the bus drivers used to wait there before going again.
The whole strip of where they waited stunk of piss especially in summer but what else could they do? The worst time was when we saw a bus driver take a poo in the bin shed but again if you have to go you have to go nothing they can do, it's still like it now I feel sorry for bus drivers

A lot of our toilets closed down because of being vandalised and simply people taking drugs in there we used to have a big block thing of them on the common but they went, and to be honest I'm happy they went

They was always dirty and people hanging around outside, another time some one had overdosed in there which was just sad for the person who found them and obviously the person who had passed. Another toilet block has now just been converted into a cafe thing but the toilets had been closed since early 2000's I think so that's what 19 years of just sitting there empty. And it stunk when the doors was opened back up
We are lucky though we have Starbucks to use, pubs and the council loos, Asda's Sainsbury's Morrison's etc our town centre is okay

If I bought a coffee in McDonald's, I'd be desperate for the loo again quite quickly!

You don't have to drink it ! I just mentioned it as being a very cheap item to buy. It isn't up to McDonald's to provide free public toilets but every parent knows McDonald's is an option for a child in an emergency. I was grateful to them. There's no need to take advantage.

It’s so wrong that people are forced to use places like McDs and Starbucks in this way. Yes they are big companies but it isn’t up to them to provide public toilets.

I am very lucky where I live. Two shopping centres with loos, two of the parks have toilets and there is one council owned one in the town centre.

What a ridiculous and irrelevant comment. McDonald's sells food. It's not there to provide free toilets. You do realise that in some branches they have introduced a code same as Starbucks et al? Entirely because of people abusing access to their toilets.

PantsyMcPantsface
when she was a toddler I'd just take a million changes of clothes and go in the baby change, now I can't do that easily so we've been confined to the house.
This. This is appalling, the way people are confined to the house by the lack of public conveniences (as they used to call them). All those sanctimonious people on here who think you can just go before you leave the house and then be OK all day, or survive a long bus journey, or maybe just wear a long skirt (FFS) - please try and put yourself in someone else's shoes for a second, eh?

I'm lucky: I'm OK and don't have IBS or a partner with Crohn's disease or a toddler or an elderly parent whose bladder is losing its capacity. I can afford to use a café or a pub if I find myself in extremis. But even I can see this is a huge problem, and it can cruelly confine people to the house. It's tragic that we have lost so much public provision. We need to campaign for legislation to make it mandatory.

I was in my local shopping area, now a pedstrianised area, early this afternoon.

I saw a woman walking towards me rather awkwardly in track suit bottoms. She then stopped and pulled the elasticated waist out and peered down her stomach. The she put her hand in and pulled out a McDonalds polystyrene cup from between her legs.

She then poured the contents down a drain hole.

And funnily enough there is a new row of toilets just been installed in the hope to attract people back to the old high street.

But I suppose if you are living on the streets you dont have the small change that will get you into public toilets should they be there.

This infuriated me (potty trained 2 little ones this year and weak bladder after childbirth myself). Even our local library has NO toilets at all. They have all these toddler sessions and children’s sessions and elderly meet ups and until I pointed it out it didn’t occur to them that lack of a toilet might be a real barrier.

The euphemism used to be 'spend a penny' ... many public loos didn't used to be free in the past.

I think that's really out of order. McDonald's toilets are safe and clean. I relied on them when my son was small, particularly if we were not in our home city. McDonald's food is very cheap. Their coffee is probably the cheapest take away you can buy. I don't think it is fair to expect them to provide toilets for nothing.

If I bought a coffee in McDonald's, I'd be desperate for the loo again quite quickly!

The worst place I can think off for public toilets was Paris. We wandered round for ages, becoming increasingly desperate. Ds1 had earlier used an absolutely gross portaloo type thing next to the Eiffel Tower.

Oops, I forgot, Ronald McDonald is obviously very poor huge global corporation , like the cash-strapped councils who can't provide public toilets. All those who have ever used his toilets without purchasing his exquisite gourmet must now grovel before him, and spend time in the stocks pelted with big macs.

I used McDonalds a lot - I'd never buy anything, most of them were busy enough that it was easy to sneak in

I think that's really out of order. McDonald's toilets are safe and clean. I relied on them when my son was small, particularly if we were not in our home city. McDonald's food is very cheap. Their coffee is probably the cheapest take away you can buy. I don't think it is fair to expect them to provide toilets for nothing.

I used to be a driving instructor in London, and public toilets are indeed noticeable by their absence. I had the precious few carefully marked on my map, and I'd have to plan them into my day. I used McDonalds a lot - I'd never buy anything, most of them were busy enough that it was easy to sneak in. Supermarkets usually had them, petrol stations were hit and miss; they'd frequently be "out of order", or have the blue lights in the cubicles.

I often did ask my pupils if I could use their toilets after a lesson. Unthinkable on MN!

It is an interesting enigma that with our many advances in science and technology, the need to go to the toilet several times a day is one thing we haven't managed to crack, and that even the Queen has to use a bathroom like the rest of us. In a kids' book about space flight, I remember reading "astronauts can even go to the toilet as the space suit has a kind of nappy inside". How about special pants that we can all wear, which can be emptied at the end of the day?

@CherryPavlova As for our country introducing public lavatories and then having so few of them... we invented many things, which the rest of the world quickly did better than us. Football, railways, etc.