A campaigner for better public loos is suggesting a collaborative approach to tackle issues including poor accessibility, questionable hygiene, scattered needles and budget cuts.
Raymond Martin told The Guardian the first thing he looks for in a toilet is cleanliness, but he added that public loos generally are in decline, with about 50% of them lost since 2000.
Raymond is the Managing Director of the British Toilet Association (BTA), a not-for-profit members organisation working to promote the highest possible standards of hygiene and provision in all “away from home” toilet facilities across the United Kingdom.
The BTA asserts: “We all need to use the toilet several times each day when we are away from our homes, at work, on holiday or simply commuting from place to place. This becomes even more urgent if you belong to one of the many specialist user groups who suffer from medical conditions that require you to have immediate access to the toilet.
“Just having access to clean, hygienic toilets when we need one is simply about our basic human rights and it fulfils an important requirement for our health and well-being, equality, social Inclusion, and privacy and public decency.
The BTA is, funded by companies including those that design and build public toilets, with Raymond saying: “It’s clearly in their commercial interests to have more public conveniences – but it’s in our interests too.”
He told The Guardian that since 2000 the UK has lost about 50% of its public toilets. The Guardian added that “a lack of toilets affects all of us, but especially those with disabilities, older people and those with chronic illness, including bowel and bladder problems.”
Raymond said: “It’s about sanitation and hygiene. It’s about helping people, health and wellbeing, equality, and it’s just about making things right.”
The Guardian reported that over a year Raymond will leave his home in Bangor, Northern Ireland, and visit about 600 toilets, including those in supermarkets and in pub chains such as Wetherspoon’s, to check their condition, but also to give feedback on how they can be improved.
A reporter accompanied him on a visit to a car park where they inspected an accessible loo first.
Raymond noted: “Number one: how easy the door is to open.”
He proceeded to check the number of rails inside; that they’re in the right position, and there’s enough space for a wheelchair to turn. He found the seat to be about 2cm too low to be easily sat on by a wheelchair-user. He added that a shelf would be useful, particularly for people changing a colostomy bag.
The built-in metal sink and dryer was in working order and virtually spotless, and there were two coat hooks.
He said: “The mirror is clean as a whistle. Lighting is good.”
At another set of public loos in the same town Raymond noted: “Now, the criticism here is the white rails, because people with partial sight could have trouble seeing them. They should have had a band of dark tape put on them, for visibility. The rails on the baby change table could be higher, and the sink could be lower.”
To find out more about the work of the BTA visit http://www.btaloos.co.uk/