Campaigners were refused access to loos in cafes and shops across Bristol, highlighting a faltering council-run scheme to replace 18 recently closed public toilets.
After Bristol City Council controversially shut 18 public toilets in 2018, a new scheme was set up to replace the lost loos. The council’s Community Toilet Scheme sees shops, cafes, pubs and other venues offer their toilets to the public, free to use, without ordering anything.
But research conducted by the community union Acorn has shown that most of the 126 toilets do not have a poster up clearly advertising the scheme — which the council say they must — and many staff appear to be unaware they are involved in the scheme.
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Some Acorn campaigners were even told they were not allowed to use loos in certain venues, raising questions about how well the Community Toilet Scheme makes up for the recently closed public toilets, and adding pressure on the council to reopen them.
Salem Bennett, an Acorn member, said he faced trouble from a security guard in a supermarket in Henleaze after using the toilets. In a video shared by Acorn, he said: “I asked a store assistant where the toilets were, who told me, but said they’re only for customers. I didn’t think this would be a problem since I had recently bought something from the shop.
“When I came out of the toilet, there was a security guard who asked me if I had bought a bag from the store today. I explained that I had, as well as a wrap. He asked to see the packaging for the wrap, to which I agreed and offered to take him to the till where I had bought my items.
“After I pointed to the right one, and after seeing the packaging for the wrap, he said I could go. I didn’t think anything of it until a couple of weeks later, when an Acorn member did an inspection of this toilet and I realised this toilet wasn’t just for customers, but was instead for all members of the public. Therefore I shouldn’t have experienced this.”
A recent open letter addressed to council chiefs, signed by Acorn Bristol and several other groups including Bristol Women’s Commission, described the Community Toilet Scheme as a “sticking plaster”.
The letter said: “The lack of access to public toilets in Bristol isn’t simply inconvenient, it raises issues of equality and dignity. Lack of toilets had led to the use of public spaces as substitutes, effectively open sewers in our city. Parts of Bristol stink of urine and faeces, in parks, alleyways and car parks. It’s grossly unhygienic, detracts greatly from the impression the city has on residents and visitors, and raises significant public health concerns.
“Acorn members have visited half of the participating venues and found the Community Toilet Scheme to be a sticking plaster that isn’t functioning effectively as a replacement for the missing toilets. Members of the public shouldn’t have to ask favours from local businesses just to use the toilet — again, this is about dignity.”
The Community Toilet Scheme involves local shops, cafes, pubs and other businesses and organisations signing up to let members of the public use their loos. According to the council, the benefits include “more people using your business” and “free publicity”, but no financial incentive is given. Venues in the scheme must follow a set of standards, including keeping the toilets clean and available and displaying posters advertising the scheme.
However, many of the toilets listed in the scheme are not always open to the public. Some are open for just three hours a day, unlike proper public toilets which tend to be open all day long. Other toilets are listed in places that no longer exist, like the Blackboy Inn pub at the top of Whiteladies Road which is now a fitness centre.
After months of research, Acorn campaigners found they were unable to use 28 per cent of the toilets they visited. Eighty-two per cent of venues had no sign indicating they were part of the scheme, and 65 per cent of the staff they asked were unaware of the scheme. Some venues told campaigners they had opted out of the scheme, but continued to be listed on the council’s website. Acorn also claimed toilets were not located in places where people needed to use them the most.
Council chiefs said all toilets listed have been checked recently, to make sure signs were up and staff were aware. Planning permission was also granted last month for replacement public toilets on the Downs, which will be funded by a proposed new cafe on the historic parkland. A map on the council’s website displays all the city’s public and community toilets.
Councillor Ellie King, cabinet member for public health and communities, said: “There are 126 public toilets listed through Bristol City Council's community toilet scheme. All toilets on the list have been recently visited to check if signage was present and to ensure staff knew about the scheme. We are actively increasing the number of toilets signed up to the Community Toilet Scheme.
“The assessment by Acorn doesn’t match our evidence-led approach as to where publicly accessible toilets are in the greatest need. We asked Acorn if they would like to add their offices to the Community Toilet Scheme but unfortunately we never heard back.
“New public toilets are being explored across different areas of the city, most recently the Downs, where planning approval was given for new toilets, cafe space and a hub for ecological work — despite opposition from Green Party and Conservative councillors, where one member even voted against it out of fear they would be used for ‘cottaging’. I hope to see more support from councillors and community groups for building new public toilets and further expanding our Community Toilet Scheme in future.”
A random sample of 10 venues listed on the scheme, spread across the city, were surveyed by the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Of those, only two had posters up clearly displaying their involvement in the scheme.
One Acorn member who took part in the research, Barbara Segal, said she had checked 40 venues herself. The retiree said some days she walked up to nine miles across Bristol, checking for posters advertising the scheme, and asking staff if they were aware their business was participating.
She said: “As I’m an older woman, if I went in and didn't say anything about the scheme, just asked ‘is it ok if I use your toilet', all bar about two have said I could use them — but they probably would say that to an older woman. Only four knew they were in the scheme. I’ve only seen four or five of the little posters the venues are meant to display, the vast majority don’t have them. The places I have seen them, they were swamped by other stuff.
“For the ones in libraries and community centres, the opening times are not open all day every day, it’s very sporadic. People don’t know about it, and the publicity is poor. There are little leaflets in some libraries which list them. But the vast majority of people don’t know about them. Some of my friends say they wouldn’t go into a pub, and some wouldn’t be comfortable asking in a cafe. People don’t like to ask. Sometimes you need to get a key or a code. I just think it’s not working in all sorts of ways.
“The venues get absolutely nothing for doing it, there’s no incentive. I assumed they would get a reduction in business rates or something like that. It’s clearly expensive to maintain toilets, and they need to be kept clean. But the government should be funding it, and the council should be hassling the government to do it. It’s an outrage. People are peeing in the river and parks because there’s nowhere for them to go. It’s a public health issue.”
More than 2,300 people have signed an Acorn petition urging the council to reopen seven of the 18 public toilets which recently closed, in: Greville Smyth Park, Mina Road Park, Colston Avenue, Fishponds Park, Bridgewater Road and Bedminster Common, Blackboy Hill, and Station Road in Shirehampton. The council closed the 18 toilets in 2018, to save £440,000. If Acorn’s petition receives 3,500 signatures, the issue would be debated by the full council.
Earlier this year, a majority of cross-party councillors called for the council’s new budget to include cash for reopening public toilets, but this ultimately didn’t happen. Also, a spare £900,000 unspent from last year’s budget ended up going into the council’s reserves and towards the mayor’s office, despite calls for that money to go towards reopening public toilets.
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