50 signatures reached
To: We must call the Government to make the provision of public toilets a compulsory priority.
OUTDOOR WORKERS NEED TOILETS TOO
The Government must make the provision of public toilets a compulsory priority on a well planned and regulated basis. • Parity laws to be established in the UK to ensure fair provisions for women, outdoor workers, children & the disabled. The Government must reverse years of funding cuts to local authorities and invest in our
civic infrastructure.
National and local government should urgently pilot innovative new ways of financing public toilets.
Why is this important?
Many people in the UK are now embarking on 'deliberate dehydration' tactics to reduce the need to to use the toilet when outdoors. According to the Royal Society Of Public Health Over half (56%) of the public now restrict fluid intake due to concern over lack of toilet facilities. Outdoor workers are facing similar problems with some resorting to deliberate dehydration which can seriously affect health and exacerbate existing medical problems, National and local governments must pilot innovative new ways of financing public toilets, including a “spend a penny” campaign. In recent decades an increasing pressure on local authority budgets has led to the privatisation or closure of many public toilets. Failure to provide adequate public loos also directly hampers some of the UK’s wider public health efforts, such as curbing obesity, and keeping our increasingly elderly population physically active and socially engaged with the community.The increasing decline in public toilets is a threat to health, mobility, and equality.
Also ....
The lack of public toilets disproportionately affects people with ill health or disability, the elderly, women, outdoor workers and the homeless.
Three in four of the UK public think there are not enough public toilets in their area.
Knowledge of lack of facilities nearby acts as a ‘loo leash’, deterring as many as one in five (20%) from venturing out of their homes as often as they would like.
This rises to over two in five (43%) among those with medical conditions requiring frequent toilet use.
Over half (56%) of the public now restrict fluid intake due to concern over lack of access to a toilet.
We must therefore call the Government to make the adequate provision of public toilets a compulsory and urgent priority.
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