Charging for public toilets…

Back to the main point though, cost increases and budget cuts for local authorities are the main cause. One of my contracts for managing bus stations has just gone up £300k and we just have to absorb those rises. We did make toilets free during Covid but had to start charging again in 2021.

Surely charging for toilets isn’t even going to pay for itself?

Some councils have been charging for public loos for, literally, decades.

Conversely, there are still free public loos around so it *can* be done (Saltburn has great facilities, even outdoor taps and cold showers for surfers).

No, you’re right that charging won’t cover costs. It’s often a basic attempt at deterring anti-social behaviour.
In reality, opening and closing toilets at set times (usually office hours) is more successful, but limits evening usage.

Surely charging for toilets isn’t even going to pay for itself?

Years ago we were stood outside the loos at Waterloo station (as you do) and tried estimating how much money they’d be taking during the course of the day – that bog was very definitely going to pay for itself, several times over!

I firmly believe that in the future we’ll be able to trace the decline of modern civilsation directly to the decline in public bogs – they’re a canary in the cage for public spending and social provision.

Conversely, there are still free public loos around

the majority, actually – over 10k in the UK according to toiletmap.org.uk 💩 😂

Loads locally, mainly along the seafront, as it’s not too scummy around here (yet)

Of course, it’s a pain, as who has a 20p piece on them these days?

Exactly, I dont object to a 20p charge. But no chance will I have a coin on me in an emergency. Only if I know in advance that it requires it, which implies its somewhere I’ve been before… and how would I have found that out unless I was in dire need accidentally?

Of course, if I do bring a 20p, one day it will go up to 30p or I’ll miss the opening like bunnyhop almost did; then I really will be in trouble.

Surely charging for toilets isn’t even going to pay for itself?

Nope, nowhere near covering the costs. But it generates much needed income. There’s a number of contracts which generate much needed money (advertising on bus shelters for example) that without we’d have to cut other services even further.

that bog was very definitely going to pay for itself, several times over

Or it was used to subsidize other public amenities elsewhere, which didn’t have that footfall. But with higher footfall comes increased costs, like water & sewerage, cleaning, consumables, heating & electric, janitors/security, insurance, repairs, refurbishment, graffiti removal…

I vaulted the barrier into the loos in Boscastle car park and set off an alarm.

My kids were disgusted and impressed in equal measure.

The joy and surprise of teh public loo, can be anywhere between Trainspotting and Liverpools Philharmonic…..

My favourite public toilets are Swiss…. most I frequent throughout the year are spotlessly clean, spacious to the point you can take your bike inside and as a bonus are deliciously warm. All year bike friendly.

Some councils have been charging for public loos for, literally, decades.

Where do we suppose the phrase “spending a penny” comes from? I have a vague memory of the local loos in my home town having coin slots on the cubicle doors back in the 1970s. A penny made the door handles work, a bit like gumball machines.

I can understand it to a point, it doesn’t seem wildly unreasonable to expect the users to contribute to cleaning and maintenance, be that buying a drink or adding a few pence onto council tax or whatever. And of course, some areas will have issues with ne’er-do-wells. But when you’ve got to go you’ve got to go, doubly so if you’ve got additional medical reasons, and attitudes like “we’re closed” is just monumentally petty. I’m going to piss in the next 30 seconds whether I like it or not, I can either do it in your toilets or on your customer area floor, your call.

And if you’re going to require coins, having a bloody change machine nearby isn’t exactly a great leap now is it.

Always nice when the local council closes loos and cuts services due to budget constraints but then increases lunch expenses for councillors and puts up hanging baskets and having a special flower watering van…

If they close toilets and have flowers that need watering then an obvious solution presents itself.

I wonder if charging for public toilets is responsible for the increase of dogging in car parks as opposed to the more traditional cottaging in parks

I do wonder what he’d make of it all…

The necessity for toilets available in public places where it’s considered inappropriate to head into the bushes has become increasingly obvious to me as I headed past 50! Drinking too much coffee has become a risky business…

My natural reaction to refuse to pay and find an alternative. Thankfully most are free around these parts. However, a few public loos near me have been closed for weeks at a time because of vandalism. I could be persuaded that a loo behind a 20p paywall that was less likely to have to be closed for vandalism might be a good thing. Not quite sure why you’d want to hang out in a loo for any longer than needed in order to bother trashing it and I guess if you were so inclined you’d go and trash somewhere else instead so maybe it wouldn’t make too much difference.

It’s been 20p for at least the last couple of decades, im surprised this is new to you. Plus paying to pee is standard in most countries. It helps pay for the service.

Exactly, I dont object to a 20p charge. But no chance will I have a coin on me in an emergency

I carry a few 20p coins in my riding wallet….Be Prepared, and all that.

They removed the charge at Edinburgh Waverley station and introduced it at Glasgow Queen Street as art of the refurb. At GQS they’re coins only though – madness.

I carry a few 20p coins in my riding wallet….Be Prepared, and all that.

You never know.

Its privatisation via the back door

Dwayne’s mum would have brought him up to clean any public loo before use…

I carry a few 20p coins in my riding wallet….Be Prepared, and all that.

You have a special riding wallet and you use paid toilets on bike rides?

Of course he does! He’s not an animal!

I just noticed,

Username checks out.

It helps pay for the service.

Not likely. You’re looking at roughly £1,500 per door for the lock alone, then the “local council” markup, then the installation cost, maintenance, administration, and handling the cash.

Also, shouldn’t council tax pay for councilly things?

Not likely. You’re looking at roughly £1,500 per door for the lock alone, then the “local council” markup, then the installation cost, maintenance, administration, and handling the cash.

If it costs £1,500 and you pay 20p, that 20p still helps, just not very much.

What’s the footfall of a typical bog? Say one punter a minute, over an eight-hour operating day, that’s ~£100 a day. You’ve paid for your £1,500 lock in just over a fortnight.

I’ve just made up those statistics, I’ve no idea, but I can see it adding up pretty quickly in busy areas.

Also, shouldn’t council tax pay for councilly things?

I’d say so, yes.

You better save up for your holibags….. 50p a pee in the Highlands and don’t expect to have a dump outside of office hours

If you ever are at a public toilet with a barrier, I have heard that dangling a jacket over the other side to break the laser sensor might open the barrier for you to walk in FOC.

In Amsterdam few years ago, wanting to go on a boat trip. Wife and kids desperate for a wee. It was 1 euro each.
Get on the boat 5 minutes later and there’s a toilet at the back 🤦‍♂️

Also, shouldn’t council tax pay for councilly things?

Yep. But there are statutory councilly things and and the budget has to be prioritised for these. Social work services, social care, education etc. Councils are having to make tough choices.

I do wonder what he’d make of it all…

He’d save his 20p, go back to nature and go Outside.

Our local park had a new sports pavillion built with new public toilets about 8 years ago. Recently the local scrotes have vandalised them twice now so I think they’re permanently closed.

So there are other reasons for closing them and charging for them.

https://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/news/crime/toilets-in-chesterfield-parks-to-close-early-due-to-further-vandalism-as-disabled-facilities-damaged-and-building-flooded-3915576

https://www.chesterfield.gov.uk/home/latest-news/further-vandalism-prompts-early-closure-of-park-toilets.aspx

Edit: Just close early now.

Visiting Charlestown Cornwall today 20 p a pee , I was able to pay with my phone , welcome to the space age ! 😎

It’s £1 in the car park in Tal y Bont.

I piss off elsewhere.

Agree with @sharkbait and @the-muffin-man.

I always thought you could legally piss up against the rear tyre of a car if you’re caught short, but a short google just now says I’m wrong.

Doesn’t mean I’m not going to do it. I’ll never pay to piss.

Councils employ people whose only work is to specifically seek out non-statutory things they’re spending on so they can consider stopping doing those things. Environment agency does it too.

At least for Derbyshire, councils they need to stop piiishing away ££ on unnecessary stuff, like stone chipping the road 3 weeks after renewing the actual tarmac ! Or dumping road planings into bridleways like Rushop Edge. Used the money not wasted like that to provide rhe services actually needed.

Also, shouldn’t council tax pay for councilly things?

Council tax has never covered the cost of councilly things – they rely on what the government gives them,which has been reduced by 30-40% in the last 12 years.

Anyone expecting the council to keep providing even basic services is just pissing in the wind. Which saves 20p, anyway.

What about loo roll holders? There’s a whole industry devoted to designing loo roll holders to go in public/workplace loos to ensure you can only get 1 sheet at a time and not nick the whole roll. One shitty little screwed up sheet at a time. Which you then have to straighten back out to something that resembles loo roll rather than a crumpled mess that fits on your little finger. How much productivity is lost to workers in offices straightening out loo roll? How much human endeavour has been wasted designing and manufacturing these evil dispensers of crumpled clag cleaners?

I get why it’s like this. I was at a festival where the portaloos were generously filled with half a dozen rolls on a shelf. Witnessed a women leave one loo with everything she could carry all for herself.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

I once got heckled for getting out of my car and taking a piss behind a bush at the side of a motorway.

The fact I, and several hundred other people had been grid locked for about 2 hours didn’t seem to make a difference.

I just shrugged, smiled and gave a thubs up, before getting back into the car.

True story.

Technicaly illegal? possibly, but I’m not going to piss in my car, am I.