“With an increasing number of cost-cutting public convenience closures and the outgoing Government’s unwillingness to make public toilets a statutory public service”, quotes British Toilet Association Director Richard Chisnell, “both residents and visitors are feeling increasingly isolated, when it comes to satisfying their daily toileting needs away from home. Market forces seem to be the preferred regulator but, with a shrinking local authority discretionary public toilet service and continued reluctance on the part of many commercial loo providers to allow public use of their toilets, Britain’s reputation as a nice place to visit is under some significant self-inflicted threat.”

[Read the Liberal Democrat Resonse ...]

Councils are changing colour over the issue of public toilets. Shepway District Council (which includes Michael Howard’s Folkestone Constituency), swung to the Tories after the Lib Dem Council closed all of its public toilets in response to last year’s Council Tax capping threat.

The BTA is urging everyone to vote for Candidates who would support a statutory obligation on all public service providers, including local authorities, education and health authorities and bus and train operators, to provide a properly regulated public toilet service, with minimum standards of provision for all types of toilet user – including families, young children and people with a variety of special needs.

To help make this point, the Association has communicated the attached poster and explanatory letter to all outgoing MP’s as well as all Election candidates.

Richard Chisnell, Director, BTA

The Liberal Democrat Response to the British Toilet Association

The introduction of a statutory requirement for toilet provision by all public service providers - local authorities, bus and train operators, education and health authorities.

Whilst we support the aim of ensuring public conveniences are widely available, we do not feel it is appropriate to require all public service providers to maintain facilities. We wish to avoid heavy handed central regulation. We believe that the provision of conveniences on public transport should be a matter for the companies concerned. We do, however, believe that competitive pressures between different transport providers will constantly push them to increase the quality of services they offer.

The introduction of minimum standards of provision covering all types of toilet user - i.e. equality of provision of female facilities to male; fully inclusive facilities for users with special needs - the disabled, babies and young families, as well as extended hours of availability.

We believe that health and safety standards should apply to toilets used by the public. The current regulations are sufficient for this purpose but we are willing to listen to concerns and explore possible ways of addressing specific issues. In addition we will be looking for a full implementation on the Disability Discrimination Act and this will increase accessibility for many more people. We believe that the opening times of conveniences should be a matter for the provider, as should be the type of facilities provided.

The criminalisation of anti-social behaviour in public toilets - vandalism, illegal substance abuse, sex (of any type) and vagrancy.

We believe that the current laws covering damage to property, drugs, sex in public places and vagrancy as adequate though we will keep them under review.

The criminalisation of street urination.

We believe that the current law is adequate. The main issue concerns policing. Many town centres in particular face problems on evenings, when people are leaving pubs. We need to increase the police presence to deter anti-social behaviour (such as urinating in the street). Liberal Democrats will increase the number of police officers by 10,000 and community support officers by 20,000.

The ability for local authorities to charge for the use of public toilets, on a discretionary basis. It is currently unlawful to charge for male urinals.

Our approach to local government is based on the maximum devolution of power possible within a national framework. We will carry out a review of all restrictions on local government activity with a view to removing as many as possible.

The introduction of proper regulations covering provision of pupil toilets in schools, which match workplace regulations.

We are constantly striving to increase the quality of the environment within schools. We will be prepared to consider proposals for improving the quality of toilet facilities in schools.

The encouragement, by law if necessary, of non-municipal toilet providers (e.g. pubs, restaurants, cafes) to permit public use of any toilet facilities provided.

Businesses provide facilities for their customers. Whilst we would encourage them to make their facilities available for the wider public, we could not support a requirement on them to do so. A requirement to provide facilities will increase the burden especially on small businesses. We do not believe that a private operation should be forced to provide facilities to the general public who are not customers of the business in question.

The introduction of a statutory obligation on all mobile café operators - where food and drink are consumed on site - to provide toilet facilities, where none are presently available within 100 metres.

Whilst this idea is interesting, we believe it could cause insurmountable problems for small operators which could result in many going out of business or refusing to operate in particular areas.

You can find out more about the Liberal Democrats at www.libdems.org.uk or you can contact them on 020 7222 7999 or info@libdems.org.uk

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