public convenience

As I get older I begin to identify with the sentiments in this article. If you can find a public loo in many rural settings you’re either in a parallel universe or lost. This story tells us:

Public toilets are not as convenient as they were. Getting caught short outside home has become an increasingly tricky problem as a result.

The trouble has been caused by austerity-hit councils in the UK who are not legally required to provide toilets for the public and who have cut expenditure on them in order to protect services that they are obliged by law to provide for local people.

The result is a major reduction of Ladies and Gents across the nation. According to Freedom of Information data obtained by local government researcher Jack Shaw and shared with the Observer, the number of public lavatories that local authorities have funded and maintained fell from 3,154 in 2015/16 to 2,556 in 2020/21 – a drop of 19% across the past six years, which comes on top of reductions in previous years.

Public health workers have warned that this loss of public conveniences is now causing major problems for a range of people, including the homeless, disabled, outdoor workers and those whose illnesses dictate frequent toilet use.

According to a 2019 report by the Royal Society for Public Health, imaginatively titled Taking the P***, the effect has been to create a “urinary leash” ,with one in five people stating that a lack of facilities in their neighbourhood means they restrict outings from their homes.