Public toilets

[Witchesbelazy]

We are able to start getting out a bit more parks ant things in our city well supposedly. However most of the public toilets are closed so we are still stuck at home. Done all the very local walks a lot just fed up now. Just want my children to actually to start doing fun things again. Just needed to rant really.

@emmathedilemma

I hear ya! We have a handful of the council operated ones open but there’s not many to start with and they don’t open until 11am which is quite late for a lot of walkers & runners. Also, places like castles / stately homes that the grounds are open don’t have their toilets open and it’s not as easy to just pop in places due to queues and pre booking now. It’s a nightmare for doing anything!

Do you know if the National trust ones are open?

Yes, they can't open up food places and expect people not to use a toilet

This same thread was done a few days ago, I remember being quite surprised by how many posters said their local toilets were open. Then I was in my local town during the week and I noticed that the toilets in the park and in the town centre were both open so clearly it depends where you live

I've not seen them but I've also been told that they are open in the local country parks as well

Yesterday went ro a south coast seaside town that actually had load of toilets open -was go smacked-not expecting it at all.
I think the reason is that although it is a lovely place is relatively off the radar so people who visit are relatively local - not yer Brighton or Bournemouth being chippy about Londoners.

Wow this is surprising. I live in a place in England where all public toilets are open (and have been since after the first lockdown) I am also in a support bubble with family in Wales and all are open there. Complain to your council. Why would they be shut when people should be washing hands?

We just had to raise the local precept part of our council tax 15% to cover the extra cleaning costs for our toilets...

I’ve pissed outside loads during lockdown. I have an overactive bladder and I’m buggered if that’s going to mean I can’t take the small pleasures currently available to me. With millions of dogs pissing several times a day all over anything that doesn’t move I doubt my small contribution to urine pollution is going to make any difference whatsoever.

www.lockdownloo.com/

Please contribute to this website and also shame councils on social media if they are locking up loos, before we lose them for good.

It’s not just bladder control, I have relatively heavy periods (that have been treated once) and went for a walk last week. Planned my route so I could use public toilets mid walk and still I’d leaked through to my trousers when I got home. It’s debilitating and I’m damned if I’m staying indoors at home at weekend when I’ve been stuck in front of a computer all week!

My council has just reopened the toilets; most are seasonal April-October. I actually start my shiny new job as a toilet attendant tomorrow so hoping they stay open.

The problem is the risk assessment and coming up with ways to mitigate that risk. We have to close on the hour for 15 minutes and clean all the touch points. The cleaner solution we use has been lab tested to ensure it's effective against covid 19. Disposable gloves have to be changed and hands washed when moving areas i.e. from sinks to toilets. There are three different colour coded mops to clean different areas of the floor with.

Council so probably fairly risk averse though.

@Angelica789

I’ve pissed outside loads during lockdown. I have an overactive bladder and I’m buggered if that’s going to mean I can’t take the small pleasures currently available to me. With millions of dogs pissing several times a day all over anything that doesn’t move I doubt my small contribution to urine pollution is going to make any difference whatsoever.

That's my logic. My 10 mile running route now passes no toilet facilities despite going through several parks and the city centre. There used to be at least 4 accessible en-route and now it's squat in bushes and hope it's discreet enough.

Well I could get my Costco card out, queue for 20 minutes and then be denied entry because I can't cope with breathing my recycled breath, especially mid-run...

One closed toilet "helpfully" directs to another park across the river and uphill adding on another mile and a half, which id not the useful mid-way point, nor located near a car park to start/ end runs.

The irony is the ££££ the council has soent on reminding us to wash hands and there's nowhere to wash them.

I have a very active bladder and it’s never stopped me going out. I’m very adept at weeing in a bush or behind a wall - even in built up areas. No one notices if you’re quick and discreet.
When IKEA re-opened last year, the queue to enter was huge and I really needed the loo - couldn’t wait. I quickly crouched in the hedge at the edge of the car park behind my car and nobody saw me - I just got on with it!

@womaninatightspot

My council has just reopened the toilets; most are seasonal April-October. I actually start my shiny new job as a toilet attendant tomorrow so hoping they stay open.

The problem is the risk assessment and coming up with ways to mitigate that risk. We have to close on the hour for 15 minutes and clean all the touch points. The cleaner solution we use has been lab tested to ensure it's effective against covid 19. Disposable gloves have to be changed and hands washed when moving areas i.e. from sinks to toilets. There are three different colour coded mops to clean different areas of the floor with.

Council so probably fairly risk averse though.

Which is a pretty ridiculous protocol, touchpoints being a low risk of transmission.

People shouod be washing their hands anyway and it's commonplace for people to use gel as an extra precaution after touching surfaces. Toilets never were sterile anyway!

One park where they are open has amused me... out of 5 stalls, one is open for "social distancing". So if you take a family in, you are in there for a consecutive length of time for each family member increasing any risk. Also that one toilet rapidly gets dirty, not helped by the paper being high up and behind creating a high chance of drips as women contort to reach. Why not open the alternate 3 stalls with a spare between ??? Still an abundance of distancing, keeps it cleaner and moves families through quicker.

Everywhere we have new toilets have been open

@BogRollBOGOF I don’t get why individual alternate cubical are being shut off. I’d like to hope there are dividers between the toilets - why isn’t that enough especially if flimsy bits of Perspex is enough to “save lives” in supermarkets and in restaurants.

It’s all about cutting facilities.

There is only one open in our town centre. It has a loo sentry at the entrance to ensure hordes don’t enter at once.🙄
There are another set of loos that were open briefly last summer, but as we were in Tier 4, they shut them again.
Library hasn’t been open since the 1st lockdown.
The lack of loos mean that when I do pop into town to get shopping, go to the market or the bank, I have to plan my route around beginning and ending with a loo stop, as it’s a 30 minute walk in, and back. Extremely inconvenient to have so few conveniences!
The council have also taken all the benches away from the riverside walk in one area, so my elderly parents can’t walk toto town anymore, as there’s nowhere to rest. This was done prior to Covid ,and when I asked the council for an explanation, they said the seats were being used by undesirable people, and so the manager would have to suffer...not their actual words, but that was the upshot!

Toilets weren’t open at all in one of Birmingham’s main parks last year (Cannon Hill), despite the fact that they had all kinds of paid children’s attractions and rides still running. Disgraceful.

Ours are mostly open, council and NT properties etc, and have been since everything re-opened last summer. I’d contact your council and the individual properties, if I were you.

@Barbie222

Isn't it about encouraging people to stay local, ie not going out for the day?

Well that's my point really. The assumption that if you need the loo while you are out, you've been out for hours and not stayed local. Well you might have IBS or a nervous bladder or it's your period and you've just passed a huge clot - 101 reasons why you need the loo NOW and not once you get home - even if it is only 15 minutes' walk away.

And in any event since Monday we can go as far as we want, we just can't stay overnight.

@Itsjustricemichael

We just had to raise the local precept part of our council tax 15% to cover the extra cleaning costs for our toilets...

Fair enough - as I said, toilets are a medical need and should be a priority.

I'll give Surrey Heath council a shout-out. I went for a run from one of their parks this morning and their loos were open, clean and no cubicles off-limits. On a bank holiday! Go them!