Mrs SSS and I were in Waverley Market – Edinburgh –
They’ve been pay as you go for as long as I can remember. At least you can still use them! Edinburgh council has sold the remainder off to be converted to high-end restaurants and bars!
Also, shouldn’t council tax pay for councilly things?
For that you need to fund councils properly…
I’ve worked for local authorities for the last 14 years, the cuts have been serious (I saw a 2/3rds cut in capital property budget one year!).
We are so under funded that all we can do is look to provide the minimum requirement under law. Utility costs and rising wages taking big chunks out of what is left after the cuts. Things like Education is usually ring-fenced (and mostly people, so wages), there’s nothing discretionary left these days!
And it’s going to get a lot lot worse, my local authority have identified a £43 million shortfall this year (and a total of ~£108 million over the the next 4 iirc). Thems some serious cuts coming down the line…
Welcome to Austerity Britain!
I always believed the reason public loos were (usually) free of charge was to minimise people - let’s be honest, men - from peeing wherever they like. If urinating in the street is bad then an alternative should be provided.
When I lived in Thailand I regularly saw sign saying something like:
Toilet.
Small Willy 5b
big Willy 10b.
I chose to pay the lower price.
Like a Greek god?
If councils want to avoid vandalisation of their toilets and drug-taking, why not staff them.
Drug-taking can also me reduced by the use of specific lighting which makes it impossible to see veins.
This is a sign of a much bigger problem. -
- Increasing costs.
- Reluctance to pay tax when people incorrectly perceive they don’t benefit from public services.
- Increased commercialisation of public service.
- Subsidising poor wages for employers rather than reflecting employers actually paying a living wage.
- Addiction being treated as a crime rather than an illness.
- I could go on….
I hate the ‘I’m alright Jack’, ‘Self-made myth’ and ‘socialism is communism’ bullshit.
