Public toilets have always been a bit of a gamble. When caught short, you never quite know what sort of condition they’ll be in.
In some areas of the country, public loos are a germaphobe’s nightmare; scrawled with graffiti, sticky wet floors and toilet bowls filled with unmentionable substances. Yet in other areas, they are immaculate - without even a stray bit of loo roll in sight.
According to a new piece of research conducted by bathroom specialists AQVA, Leeds is very much in the latter category and has some of the cleanest public toilets in the entirety of the UK!
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The rankings are based on the number of complaints received by local councils about the state of public toilets within their local area. The area that topped the list with the grimmest toilets in all of the UK, was seaside destination Blackpool - with a total of 39 official complaints in 2021.
Now, admittedly a total of 39 doesn’t seem that astronomic a total, especially given the town sees foot traffic to the tune of 18 million visitors a year - but this is largely down to so few people lodging formal complaints.
In a recent article by The Metro, one local resident Kevin Merchant said “The public toilets are generally in a right state here in Blackpool, but to be honest it would take an army to clean them all.”
“In the summer when all the tourists are here, I usually just nip into a pub to use their loos rather than brave the stink of the public toilets.”
Yet by contrast, just four places in the UK, had received 0 complaints, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds and Portsmouth. However, one Leeds resident wasn’t entirely convinced that the findings were accurate.
Louise Allen, who lives in the city said: “I don’t know if I can believe that. There’s a reason most of us don’t use them! It’s an obstacle course just trying to dodge the puddles let alone anything else. I think most people just don’t complain because they don’t want to admit they had to use them.”
A spokesman for AQVA said: “While it’s essential to keep our toilets clean at home, we also expect the toilets where we spend a penny out in public to be kept clean too. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.”
The dirtiest public loos in the UK:
- Blackpool: 39
- Bristol: 19
- Swansea: 18
- Cambridge: 12
- Brighton: 11
- Bath: 9
- Plymouth: 9
- Cardiff: 8
- Derby: 8
- Worcester: 7
The cleanest:
- Glasgow: 0
- Hull: 0
- Leeds: 0
- Portsmouth: 0
- Stoke: 1
- Coventry: 2
- Sunderland: 3
- Oxford: 3
- Nottingham: 3
- Cheltenham: 4
