The importance of public toilets when travelling
Written by Karen BryanReading a post in Foreign Perspectives today about French toilets brought this issue to mind again. I have spent too much time when away from home thinking of toilets. It is such a waste of time when you are visiting a town or city to either have to go to a cafe and purchase a drink in order to use their toilet facilities or search for public toilets.
The very colourful toilet at the Dean Gallery, Edinburgh
Have you had this problem? Public toilet provision does vary between different regions of the UK. In East Lothian, east of Edinburgh, there are great public toilets. They are clean, free, well sign posted and open long hours. The council has decided to spend money on this service.
As a visitor I really appreciate the provision of good public toilets and it cncourages me to visit the area again. It is down to who should pay. Should it be the user or the local taxpayer? What do you think?
I think that in reality it must be down to the local authorities (ie the local taxpayers) to pay for these things if only because a sizeable proportion of the population simply won’t “spend a penny” to use the facilities.
The snag is that in some cases it can be quite a hefty cost. Considering the time taken to get to some quite isolated spots, it doesn’t really surprise me that a number of local councils decide that it should be the user pays. However, the result is that in popular areas you can quite quickly get quite a smelly environment created where the facilities aren’t provided at all, charge something (usually £1 these days) or they close the toilets too early for the tourists (quite common in the Summer, of course).
What seems workable is something along the “McDonalds model” where their restaurants are commited to providing clean toilets and known for that. That in turn attracts people and, although not usually required to buy anything, tend to anyway. Net effect: a few more customers than they’d have otherwise and they’re free for people using them (although obviously the cleaning is paid for through an extra penny or two on the Big Macs).
I think that the McDonalds model is probably the best approach. In smaller towns and villages it woudl probably have to be the local pub as the opening hours of shops could be restrictive. In Berwick upon Tweed in Northumberland, where I now live, several shops have signs saying “You are welcome to use our toilet” but I have seen a sign at a pub saying “Toilets for use of customers only, please don’t ask, as refusal offends”. I think that if the local authority paid a nominal amount to any establishment who were willing to offer the public use of their toilets this could be a solution.
I would like it be easy and quick to find a public toilet so I can concentrate my energy and time and seeing the place I am visiting, not thinking about searching for a toilet or trying to sneak in somewhere to use their facilities. I really think it is a topic which needs to be more in the spotlight to enable visitors to have a relaxing trip.
[...] We went fo Sunday lunch at the Contented Sole pub in Eyemouth today. It is one of favourite haunts for Sunday lunch and as it’s in Scotland I will be guaranteed a smoke free environment. Lunch was followed by a walk along the coastal path north towards Coldingham. I have to say that Eyemouth is very good on the free public toilet front, with 2 public toilets in the town centre. both next to free car parks. so easy for visitors to find. You can read more about Eyemouth and the Scottish borders in my guide. [...]
[...] I have blogged on this topic before. Have you ever had a day out marred by searching for public toilets, found them but deemed them to unfit to enter or discovering that the facilities closed at 5pm on a Summer evening? All of the above have happened to me on numerous occasions.Technorati Tags: public toilets Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
Your topic is rather unusual but really urgent. I had some hours out merred by looking for a toilet and always become nervous. I think this problem influences not only on the moral behaviour and convenience but also our health.
Yes, Emma, I think that the issue is not given enough consideration and prominence. It is really uncomfortable not being able to find facilities when you need them and could be detrimental to health.
are you searching for a public toilet? or do you know one that must be in my database?
Viist http://www.wcfinder.net
What a great idea for a website, especially of a mobile version so you can find public toilets when you are travelling, I tried to search for public toilets and add toilets to the site but could not do either.
Karen,
what was your problem? did you get a error message?
WC finder, when I clicked on UK destination sto search for toilets there it just came up a as a google map, there was no information about the location of toilets and when I clicked add toilets nothing happened.
[...] at blogs.creditcards.com Emily Starbuck Gerson dispenses advice on public toilets in Europe. The importance of public toilets when travelling is one of my favourite ranting topics, I know it’s not glamourous, exciting [...]
[...] at blogs.creditcards.com Emily Starbuck Gerson dispenses advice on public toilets in Europe. The importance of public toilets when travelling is one of my favourite ranting topics, I know it’s not glamourous, exciting [...]
[...] readers of the blog will know that I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the lack of provision of public toilets when travelling, so it makes a change to have some light relief on the [...]
[...] readers of the blog will know that I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the lack of provision of public toilets when travelling, so it makes a change to have some light relief on the [...]
[...] charge? Bournemouth has many public toilets all along the beach area and in the parks and this is important for a popular tourist [...]