Have you noticed the BIG decrease in public toilets?
I know that I’ve nearly been caught short a few times, when out and about!
Now, a paper published in leading health journal, The Lancet, shows the hard data of the situation.
Between 2015–16 and 2020–21, local authorities who responded to freedom of information requests reported a 19% drop in the number of public toilets.
This plummet in resource was said to be the result of cuts to council budgets, as well as a lack of legal requirements for councils to make public toilets available.
This has BIG implications. The Royal Society for Public Health reported in 2018 that around 20% of people did not go out as often as they’d like, purely because of worries around getting to the loo.
This rose to 43% of people who have a condition that might mean needing the toilet more frequently, such as IBS and IBD.
Now, this clearly needs URGENT change. In the meantime, if you have a medical condition that means you often need the toilet urgently, you can:
- Order a ‘Just Can’t Wait’ badge that you can show to staff in shops, pubs and restaurants. This can help you to gain access to loos.
- Download the ‘Loocations’ app, which shows open loos around the UK. There are a few other apps doing similar services – have a hunt and see which works best for you.
