British Toilet Association: Archived News from the British Toilet Association 

Cafe quits loo scheme

PEOPLE in Woodley have one less place to stop off when caught short after a cafe withdrew from the town's Local Loo scheme.

Cafe Pandilla, in the precinct, has closed its toilet facilities to the public after signing up to the scheme when it was launched two years ago.

It was one of three areas that initially agreed to open its facilities for the Wokingham Borough Council initiative after cuts led to the closure of the town's public toilets.

Robert Hamilton, manager of the cafe, said: "We chose to withdraw because we had a lot of problems with people who were not our customers leaving the loos in a mess and we even had one instance where the mirror was vandalised."

The remaining free facilities open to the public are The Oakwood Centre, Woodley Library and the doctor's surgery in Headley Road, which all receive an annual fee from the borough council.
Cllr Phil Challis, who represents the Loddon ward for Woodley Town Council, said: "Obviously there are now less opportunities for people to use the toilets in the town centre.

"We were in the precinct on Saturday getting people to sign our petition against outsourcing the libraries and the common comment was where people can go to use the toilet."

Peter Baveystock, Wokingham borough council's waste and recycling manager, said: "We have spoken to the cafe because we weren't originally aware they had withdrawn their facilities, but the scheme continues to work well.

"When it was first set up, we agreed to involve two areas to replace the two public facilities that had closed. These were initially The Oakwood Centre and Costa Coffee, and Cafe Pandilla approached us because they were interested in getting involved.

"Since then, the library has come on board and although Costa Coffee withdrew in April, the doctor's surgery has joined, which people were very pleased about because it is open for considerably longer and the facilities are clean and safe to use."

This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 18 Aug 11