ePetition - Public Toilets for the City

Councils up and down the country have steadily reduced the number of public toilets over many years. This may reduce council costs, but it carries negative human and economic consequences.

The absence of public toilet facilities may be increasing the incidence of public fouling of footpaths and front entrances to homes and shops - especially in areas servicing the night time economy.

The lack of public toilets can prevent people taking children, the disabled and elderly for outings to areas (like parts of the seafront) where there are no public toilet facilities. And many fail to drink enough fluids when going out for fear of needing a non-existent public lavatory. In summer especially, this can result in dangerous levels of dehydration.

Pregnant women and the incontinent need easy access to public toilets if they are to be free to access leisure and shopping facilities in peace. The police on the beat, workmen, street cleaners, etc. and carers making their rounds of calls also need public toilet access as they walk about.

Writing in the Daily Mail, incontinence specialist Karen Logan informs that The British Toilet Association says 40% have been closed in the past ten years alone. She also warns that the bladder is directly controlled by the central nervous system"...and the physiological response to the need to empty it can mean "the heart rate starts to rise". Fine if one is fit, but for the "frail and elderly" with "high blood pressure or a cardiac condition, it can put you through a period of high blood pressure which could worsen your condition, or even, rarely, trigger a heart attack". She fears for those with irritable bowel syndrome and "the one in five
over 40 who suffer with an over-active bladder".

The article is available online here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2097420/Its-inconvenience-The-lack-public-loos-bad-health.html

Going to the shops, the beach or the parks should not involve this distress. The disabled in wheelchairs need street-level, flat-access public toilets and these are few and far between and this is unacceptable.

The economic prosperity of a shopping area can only be enhanced when public toilets are available that mean people can spend longer in that area without having to rush away to find a loo.

The presence of attendants is a community safety issue that also means more hygienic public toilets with constant provision of soap and toilet paper. Their presence also ensures users have a safe environment free from drug taking and other anti-social activities.

Easy public access to hand-washing facilities in public toilets helps control infection and helps reduce transmission of virus and bacterial sources of contagious infection within the public realm. People cannot feasibly be encouraged to practice frequent hand washing without easily available facilities.

The petition will be referred to the appropriate Committee meeting in October.

This ePetition ran from 20/02/2012 to 30/11/2012 and has now finished.

85 people signed this ePetition.