Why are there so few toilets anywhere?

[DominiqueBernard]

That is the thread. I need and want more toilets in public places.

Councils have quietly done away with them.

Eg https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/02/councils-selling-public-toilets-loo-coup

Because it costs the councils money to maintain them to a decent usable standard. When costs need to be cut these were easy savings to make.

I imagine because of the upkeep costs and maintenance. A lot of them are disgusting.

Theres always uproar on my local fb group about there being no public toilets in the local town centre but we have two large supermarkets with toilets so I don’t get what the issue is.

It's making life an utter misery for people with a whole range of medical conditions. There are times I've had to cancel planned days out because I know I won't have access to a toilet.

Because they're expensive to run and are regularly trashed, and councils - who are the only level of government to have ever taken any interest in toilet provision - have no money. Totally agree with the posters commenting about lack of toilets making life smaller and worse for people with various disabilities but the alternative cuts are very often even worse.

One lot of our toilets were used by drug takers so they put blue lights in them and painted the windows black they were then destroyed

Another lot have just been obliterated too ripping seats off door handles off smashing taps off they are in a center with cameras and security so they must be pretty quiet vandals a THIRD set of toilets has just been destroyed this week 😳 I live in a town with a bunch of cunts apparently

Public services cut to ribbons.

They get trashed a lot, if my local ones were anything to go off before they got closed, shit everywhere, people destroying doors, toilets, sinks etc

The first thing I do when arriving somewhere new is suss out where the toilets are.

It’s true that local councils are closing them due to maintenance costs.

What I particularly hate is a local council in a seaside resort closing the toilets between October & April. We have some lovely winter days to walk the beach but not a toilet open for those in need.

Some areas have arrangements with local businesses (eg. pubs) so anyone can use their loos without needing to be a customer. The business receives payment towards the upkeep from the local council.

This seems like a good solution although tbh I don't actually know how it's working out in those places.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/dec/01/the-urinary-leash-how-the-death-of-public-toilets-traps-and-trammels-us-all

Because most stand alone public toilets cost a fortune to maintain due to vandalism and yet are always disgusting. So the only people actually using them are v v desperate or the ones vandalising them or doing drugs/having sex in them.

Though I did find a rather “cute” one in wales. In a tiny tiny little village in the middle of no where but seemingly on some kind of biking routing as it also had a communal bike pump for tires. Proper toilet clean not one of those horrible metal things and tidy. But I guess not too much riff raff in the middle of nowhere 😅

The Sainsbury’s in my local town centre closed its toilets as they were always being vandalised.

The local village has cafes with toilets that can be used by anybody in some agreement with the council.

Fine to say supermarkets have toilets, my local Sainsbury's closed theirs months ago and told shoppers to go to the nearby library. Spoke to staff and they were quite gleeful about it.

One thing that really annoys me is garage toilets, so often “ out of order” when I think it is probably more a case of they don’t want to deal with the maintenance and cleaning.

I use pub toilets if there are no supermarkets,department shops or burger bars handy, but I check with bar staff first and offer 50p for the staff tip jar. If you are bold enough posh hotels are another good bet. I don’t offer them 50p for the staff tip jar though.

They're a magnet for the anti-socials, either drug dealing/taking, sex, homeless drinkers, teen vandals, etc.

Police can't be arsed to actually "police" so the council picks up the bill for the damage/cleaning, which is often excessive. Hence why the councils have closed them down and demolished them.

But lots of other places have "Public" toilets, such as hospitals, libraries, supermarkets, chain store shops, fast food outlets, chain hotels, shopping centres, car parks, leisure centres, rail/bus stations, even town halls, court buildings, etc - basically mostly places that can be locked up at night when the anti-social behaviour tends to happen.

Touch wood there are still passable public loos where I live. As well as 2 large supermarkets.

This is incredibly helpful for finding those that do exist: https://www.toiletmap.org.uk/
My IBS is very grateful to whoever created it.

Because the councils can't afford to keep them open m.

I pay 40p (contactless!) to use a loo in my nearest town. 40p!! 😱

People trash them basically, but there's toilets in coffee shops, pubs, some supermarkets etc - most have no issues with anyone using them if you ask politely or better still, buy something

My small town with a large group of older folks has two 4 public toilets. The large city i visit has none within the same amount of space even though the population of the same landmass is higher. I have to buy a coffee to go to the loo there. Hate it.

But we have record levels of Council Tax (way above inflation over the last 10 years) and Tory Austerity.

So you'd expect councils to awash with money... where has the money gone?