It will involve spending more than a penny, but it’s a call that is likely to be viewed sympathetically by anyone who has ever been caught short while out and about.
A campaign has been launched to make the provision of public toilets a legal requirement for central government and local authorities after a slump in the number of loos in town centres, parks and other locations.
The Legalise Loos campaign is the brainchild of the British Toilet Association (BTA), a not-for-profit members’ organisation, which estimates that the number of public conveniences has fallen by about 40% since 2000.
The national shortage has been blamed in part on cash-strapped councils cutting expenditure on public loos in order to protect services they are obliged by law to provide for local people.
Lavatory humour has long been a part of British culture and society, but the BTA reckons this is no laughing matter. It said the slump in the number of toilets was “impacting both people’s wellbeing and the health of our economy”.
“This affects people of all ages, whether travelling, participating in activities outside or visiting family, friends and colleagues,” it said.
Trying to assess the seriousness of the problem is complicated by the fact that there is no central database or system for managing information on public loos in the UK – or, arguably, a clear definition of what constitutes one. The BTA, however, said that by piecing various bits of information together, it believed 40% “is a reasonable estimation for the decrease over the last 25 years”.
According to the Audit Commission, there were just over 6,600 public toilets in England in 2000, while the official Valuation Office Agency put the figure at 5,410. In August 2023, the Liberal Democrats published freedom of information data stating that the number of public toilets had fallen by 14% since 2018-19.
The BTA believes the number now stands at around 3,300.
Local authorities are responsible for the provision for public toilets, but it is an optional provision rather than a mandatory requirement.
The BTA quoted 2019 research which claimed the “loo leash” put as many as one in five people off venturing out of their homes as often as they would like. The organisation said that “14 million people have incontinence issues, 15 million people menstruate, and 16 million people have a disability”.
Rose Marshall, 36, a communications consultant from Chelmsford in Essex, said: “I’m a runner with Crohn’s disease, a heady combination that often means I get an urgent need to go to the loo when jogging around streets and parks. Over the years I’ve developed a mental map of where I can go should the need arise, and it’s alarming how scarce my options are.
“The situation has been getting steadily worse, especially as shops are increasingly making toilets only available for paying customers. This is affecting people up and down the country … Why should we have to pay for what is a basic human right?”
The BTA managing director, Raymond Martin, said: “Now is the time for action. This government has an opportunity to reverse recent decline and make public toilets legal by making their provision a duty and not a choice.”
