Carry on at 'your' convenience
22nd October 2008
Anne Main has welcomed today's report from the Communities and Local Government Select Committee, on which she serves, on the Provision of Public Toilets.
Anne Main, MP for St Albans, has welcomed today's report from the Communities and Local Government Select Committee, on which she serves, on the Provision of Public Toilets.
The report made a number of recommendations, particularly promoting the concept of Community Toilet Schemes, to enable local businesses like pubs, restaurants and shops, to receive funding from local Councils to make their toilets available to the public. Members of the public could then use their toilet facilities during the premises opening hours without the need to make a purchase.
Anne said:
"This report made the point loud and clear: access to clean and safe toilets improves visitor experience to shopping areas. Good provision removes problems for those 'caught short' on trips out and also provides support for elderly people. However, forcing councils to build toilets can place them under enormous financial burden, with estimates showing that it costs around £50 per user to 'spend a penny' in purpose-built maintained facilities, and this is just too high.
I could not support saddling hard-pressed councils with extra financial burdens but I do believe they should have a duty to help find a solution to toileting needs. This is why I am glad we decided to focus on community schemes, as I feel they offer a cheap and forward-thinking solution to an expensive problem. I think St Albans could really benefit from such strategies and I have sent a copy of the report to the Council to try to encourage them to look into this. I hope that local people would embrace such a strategy and local businesses would not have cause to regret taking part.
Obviously, any strategy would never completely remove the problem of anti-social drunks relieving themselves in front gardens and backstreets and this must be dealt with by the police. I do think, however, that there is a real argument for encouraging larger businesses to open up their facilities to the public and I hope this will a practical solution to some of the problems.""
