Why are all the toilets closed 'because of covid'?

[NoEffingWay]

In homebase today, and the sign on the toilets said 'closed because of covid-19'. It's the same in lidl, b&q, and lots of other shops.
I was in london the other week and resorted to asking a church to let me in (must have looked desperate as despite the signs saying not for public use, the verger let me in!).
It's no good opening cafes and selling me drinks, it has to come out somewhere.
When will these places start using sense and opening up again? Today, I didn't need a pee, fwiw, but if it had been another day, or my period had been more insistent what would I have done? I had to drive home from the shops a few months ago or I would have wet myself.

It's a nightmare with a potty training toddler! We can only go to the one or two parks where toilets are still open

Totally agree, COVID is now the universal excuse for rubbish service.

Having said that all the public loos in my county are open, thank goodness.

It's been pretty awful in some places. Wadebridge closed all their public toilets, you had to drive to Tesco if you needed a pee. Looe kept one block open, but have recently reopened everywhere except the Guildhall. Padstow Harbour carpark toilets were open and impeccably clean, Mount Edgcumbe closed all theirs, so everyone had to use the two manky toilets at Cremyll. Lanhydrock kept theirs open, as did Heligan when we last went. Minions were closed, despite having to pay 20p to use ( not that we mind, it's nice to have them there). We haven't been to places if they've made it to difficult for us to be. The rules of funnelling the most people into the smallest areas seem ridiculous. Agree it's a cost cutting exercise under the guise of Covid safety.

Yup. I had to pee behind a wall I was so desperate after a long drive to see my parents, the only toilets en route we’re shut and I’m pregnant so no chance of holding it. Hoiking myself over that wall was tragic I almost cried.

Another rule for the sake of a rule. Wash your hands when you come out, job done! A carboot sale I go to have closed their toilets. I now have to make the choice between my morning coffee or a trip into the woods. I'm getting very adept at squatting.

I'm pregnant. Usually places are good at letting me use the loo given my "condition" but I've wet myself (not full flow or anything) more than once because I haven't found a loo. I now carry a change of undies which I can change in the car if needs be.

My local Lidl has kept their toilets open but the garden centre with a cafe has closed theirs. Very odd!

Faeces actually carry a high viral load. I work in a hospital lab and we've put new protocols in place for faecal samples since covid hit. Couple that with the spray and invisible aspiration from the flush when people don't close the lid. I haven't used a public toilet in the whole pandemic.

It is so limiting if toilets are closed. I booked an early appointment for my dentist, as the toilet was closed, and couldn't have a drink until afterwards.
I am now on the brink of a cystitis attack so cannot go anywhere that doesn't have an open toilet.
Also I am terrible at wild wees as I always manage to wee down one leg. I now have one of those gel packs in the car, just in case. My daughter in law always has an adult nappy in the car.
This is what women have to resort to when they desperately need a wee and the idiots making the decisions forget that women don't pee standing up and have different needs to men. [

No doubt those deciding to close the loos are mostly able-bodied adult males.

I was in a traffic jam not long ago. There must have been about 12 men who got out to relieve themselves. Not a single woman, although presumably there were at least as many (or more) who had the same need.

@PassGo

No doubt those deciding to close the loos are mostly able-bodied adult males.

I was in a traffic jam not long ago. There must have been about 12 men who got out to relieve themselves. Not a single woman, although presumably there were at least as many (or more) who had the same need.

That’s because a woman peeing in public is frowned upon but somehow a man doing it is fine. I was on a coach coming back from Germany once (we were stuck on M25) and the loo on board was broke. Men got out to pee but women didn’t even though we badly needed to go.

Because a setting that is regularly cleaned and in which people wash their hands is clearly more risky than other settings..... er, yeah

Just a rule for the sake of having a rule, absolutely pointless. I wouldn’t blame people for pissing in the aisle.

It's a sneaky way of saving money. They don't need to pay anyone to clean them. Public toilets seem to be closed as well. Doctors aren't seeing patients either - it's so much easier if you don't actually have to see your patients!

It is utterly ridiculous. Public toilets need to be open.

Why does Covid apparently mean that people who are out and about, very possibly eating and drinking, no longer need to go to the toilet!?

I have terrible flooding periods. On one occasion earlier this year I was unable to go with the rest of my family to visit our uni student DD as all public toilets in h her city were closed and I couldn't take the risk.

Thankfully that is no longer the case and I have been since.

Let me tell you about rubbish bins in Japan and the sarin gas attack of 1995.

In 1995, a group of terrorists from a strange religious cult committed a sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway system. The perps put the gas in plastic bags and put them in rubbish bins in the subway.

Japan responded by getting rid of rubbish bins.

We still barely have rubbish bins 25 years laterit is very hard to find a rubbish bin here. It's all silly, of courseif someone wanted to gas the subway, there are a million other places you could hide sarin gas or other similar substances. But, still. This is what happened.

1. The rubbish bins got removed in a mass societal panic--"Quick! Everyone's panicking! Let's look like we're doing something."
2. The Powers That Be quickly realized that you can actually save a lot of money by not providing rubbish bins and telling the general public to just deal with the situation.
3. Like boiled frogs, everyone just gets used to the crappy reality of having no bins, and stops demanding them. We all just end up carrying fistfuls of sticky, smelly rubbish around with us instead. Or placing it above the cistern in toilet cubicles in desperation because we can't fit any more of it into our bags or pockets.

I suggest you all start being extremely LOUD and VOCAL about your need for toilets, including explaining that you will be leaking all over the seats or floor if toilets should not be provided. Because once councils have got used to the lovely monetary savings that are enabled by not running or cleaning toilets any more, it might be very hard to get them back.

I haven't seen any toilet closures like this in the US, even during the strictest lockdown periods. In the US, it's a legal requirement that any place selling food and drink must have toilets for customers.

What do the employees of these establishments do with no access to toilets?

I work in a health centre. We had a letter from NHS England earlier this year saying due to the South African variant toilets had to be cleaned after every use. We just couldn't keep track of who used the toilets so we shut them and just had the disabled toilet accessible. Patients had to ask for a key so we knew when it was used. Staff cleaned down their own loo after use. We haven't heard a change on policy but just decided to open up now anyway.

@user1477391263

Let me tell you about rubbish bins in Japan and the sarin gas attack of 1995.

In 1995, a group of terrorists from a strange religious cult committed a sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway system. The perps put the gas in plastic bags and put them in rubbish bins in the subway.

Japan responded by getting rid of rubbish bins.

We still barely have rubbish bins 25 years laterit is very hard to find a rubbish bin here. It's all silly, of courseif someone wanted to gas the subway, there are a million other places you could hide sarin gas or other similar substances. But, still. This is what happened.

1. The rubbish bins got removed in a mass societal panic--"Quick! Everyone's panicking! Let's look like we're doing something."
2. The Powers That Be quickly realized that you can actually save a lot of money by not providing rubbish bins and telling the general public to just deal with the situation.
3. Like boiled frogs, everyone just gets used to the crappy reality of having no bins, and stops demanding them. We all just end up carrying fistfuls of sticky, smelly rubbish around with us instead. Or placing it above the cistern in toilet cubicles in desperation because we can't fit any more of it into our bags or pockets.

I suggest you all start being extremely LOUD and VOCAL about your need for toilets, including explaining that you will be leaking all over the seats or floor if toilets should not be provided. Because once councils have got used to the lovely monetary savings that are enabled by not running or cleaning toilets any more, it might be very hard to get them back.

Sadly, I think you have a good point. Many of our loos had already closed before Covid.

Is there no petition?

All these "rules" about cleaning toilets every five seconds and this genius idea that if you close every other cubicle or basin people won't just have to wait longer and clog up the space and stand closer breathing in each other are ABSOLUTE PISS AND FULL OF SHIT. (Pun intended.)

As someone said upthread, what goes in must come out. People can't just not wee. So what happens is that people can't go out in case they need the loo. I thought we dealt with the idea of infection via toilet seats with AIDS ages ago? If people are worried about catching covid they can just not use public loos. For many people it will be a question of would I rather risk a covid germ wafting on the breeze of someone else's flush or wet myself in public. Makes me want to go to the dentist with the closed toilet and wee on their floor.

Ooh, I'm cross!

I would also like to nominate dressing rooms, had to try on trousers in Tesco toilets today and return the ones that didn't fit me. I asked and was told 'we're not allowed' WHY??!

I'm a local councillor and it's for insurance purposes. We can only open our toilets now with a professional cleaner but at the height of the pandemic we had to close them due to infection risk because we couldn't guarantee public safety. Don't shoot us, shoot the insurers.

It was a matter raised in a Downing Street press conference over a year ago. I can understand the insurance reason given that it is so easy to sue given no win no fee.

In a away given the behaviour of some people and the lack of basic decency when using public toilets or even workplace ones, I cannot blame some organisations for being reluctant to re-open them. I remember the MN thread about the man who took his daughter to work and used the workplace toilet, had a very large bowel movement and stunk the place out.

@MikeWozniaksGloriousTache

Yup. I had to pee behind a wall I was so desperate after a long drive to see my parents, the only toilets en route we’re shut and I’m pregnant so no chance of holding it. Hoiking myself over that wall was tragic I almost cried.

Oh you poor thing

Do you have a shewee for the car? I have had one since early days of driving and getting stuck in a crazy traffic jam.

More fucking excuses for crap service. That’s all.

It's ridiculous. You are no more at risk of picking up Covid from a toilet than you were before of picking up some other pathogen, some far more dangerous, such as norovirus, polio, staphylococcus, influenza, meningitis, adenovirus, TB, typhoid, etc, etc.

Good cleaning is necessary, but it always was.

Wilko had helpful announcements explaining that 'for your safety our customer toilets are closed'. OK, I'll shop elsewhere, thanks, nothing safe about people having to pee (or worse) in corners of town.