Another year flashes, or should I say flushes by – our seventh!

Each year I feel we raise the profile of ‘away from home’ toilets a little further and, along with the annual Loo of the Year Awards, make progress towards encouraging higher standards of provision throughout the UK.

Two significant developments to report over the last few months.

We persuaded Local Government Minister, Phil Woolas, to address our Public Toilet Seminar, held in partnership with Encams, in London last July at which he made some very supportive comments about the BTA campaign.

In essence, he appreciated the need to do something to halt the decline in public toilets and agreed to establish a Steering Group, to discuss, agree and implement a public toilet National Provision Strategy.

Progress has been frustratingly slow and only this week (w/ending 24th February) have I received the Minister’s letter inviting the BTA to participate. We now await a date for the first meeting!

While I applaud the Minister for putting his head above the toilet parapet and for recognising the work and effort being put in by the BTA, I fear for the outcomes of this Group, which has already taken nearly twelve months to establish!

I know, and I suspect you do too, that a few basic decisions regarding toilet provision – preferably made at Government level, would provide instant solutions to our campaign message and everybody’s toileting needs.

The problem is that public toilets have traditionally been provided by Local Authorities and, as this public service, vital as it is, is currently a discretionary one and Authorities are required to make year on year reductions in costs (the Gershon factor!) many of our remaining public toilets are slowly being squeezed out of existence.

The second development – not, I hasten to add one of our making, was the BBC’s decision to feature the campaign on one of BBC 1 TV’s ‘One Life’ series.

Weeks of filming and grilling resulted in a documentary which was well liked by many TV / media critics and one which I felt captured the essence of our campaign.  Obviously, TV has to be entertaining too, so, while we were disappointed not to see more of the serious campaigning footage edited out, the characters featured in the documentary (the writer excepted!) were a credit to our industry and deserve fulsome praise.

When Matthew Parris writes in The Times (22/02) of the ‘urgent need for a new public lavatory policy’ he and many other like minded journalists, send a powerful message to those in the Government cubicle. Let’s hope they take action!

We hope there will be a 20th Anniversary Loo of the Year Awards this year – although at the time of writing we only have a small percentage of our sponsorship income budget covered – and this just two weeks ahead of our intended launch at The NEC Cleaning Show!   If only potential sponsors could see the two foot high pile of press cuttings resulting from the 2006 Awards on my office floor!

We are introducing two new categories this year for Food and GM (General Merchandise) Superstores and there will be a new UK Trophy Award for family friendly toilet facilities – i.e. facilities dedicated to children and parents – not just the usual pull down babychange.

We are still supporting the School Toilet Campaign (Bog Standard) which is making steady progress – but again too slowly!

I believe that a lot of today’s anti-social behaviour towards toilets stems from our first experiences of using toilets away from the comfort of our own home under close parental supervision. We need better school toilets and more support and better supervision in these ‘mind setting’ locations. First impressions are the one that tend to stick with us.

Although we still hear about public toilet closures from all parts of the UK we also increasingly hear about new toilets being built and about the externalisation of public toilet portfolios to dedicated contractors – BTA members. This is further proof that the tide is turning and standards are rising.

With over 1100 entries in the 2006 Loo of the Year Awards and nominations already pouring in for the 2007 Awards, we know there are many providers who now recognise the importance of high quality toilet provision. The legislation we are campaigning for – particularly in respect of public toilet provision – is designed to ‘encourage’ the many other providers to recognise the opportunities they are missing. Award winning toilets are good for business as well as for users!

The BTA membership remains reasonably buoyant. We are always disappointed that more companies in the washroom industry do not feel the need to support the campaign – some of them key players too, but we remain very grateful to the many companies, authorities and organisations who have remained loyal to our campaign. We would have to close down without their continuing support.

We’ll keep the campaign alive and hope that further significant developments will add value to our cause in the coming months.

A little thought to finish with. Westminster City Council – one of the best local authority providers in Britain – have 27 public conveniences within half a mile of the north bank of the Thames – used by over 15 million people a year!

The South Bank, on the other side of the Thames – worthy, in my view, to be a World Heritage Site – has over 14 million visitors a year and no public toilets between Lambeth Bridge and the Tate Modern.  Not a happy (or hygienic!) comparison!

Happy toileting and ladies, do pay a visit to the new ‘WC1’ pamper shop on Oxford Street, opposite Selfridges.  This marks a significant step forward for high quality toilet provision and lifts this basic everyday necessity onto a new attitudinal level.  I foresee every town with a ‘WC1’ in the future but satisfying the male as well as the female need!

Richard Chisnell

Director
British Toilet Association

You can now download the full BTA 2007 Spring Newsletter (including this review) in Adobe PDF format (3.26MB)

March 2007

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