Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
Your industry news - first
The original and best - for over 20 years!
We strongly recommend viewing Cleanzine full size in your web browser. Click our masthead above to visit our website version.
Leader 20th October continued
Continued from Front Page
The petition has its own Facebook page (www.facebook.com/pages/We-need-the-loo/142266822533490) and can be found on the government's e-petition web site at (epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/15258).
The e-petition website allows anyone to put up a petition - and if any petition gets at least 100,000 signatures, it will be eligible for debate in the House of Commons. So I urge everyone to sign it and pass the information on to others so that they can also sign it.
Public toilets are sometimes seen as a drain on resources, but they can be an invisible aid to the economy - most people will prefer to visit town centres and tourist resorts with good toilet facilities. Recent changes to the law also mean that Councils can now charge for use of both toilets and urinals, (which they could not until recently) which could ensure income for maintenance, and perhaps even additional jobs for toilet attendants.
More facilities will also help halt the growing problem of street fouling - a major public health risk with associated clean-up costs - and something that damages our nation's reputation and discourages visitors from coming here.
Help make a difference by adding your name to the petition if you're a UK resident and/or convincing others to do the same.
And if you need further convincing:
* Women have been particularly poorly served by public toilet facilities. A woman takes twice as long to use the loo as a man, but the number of WCs and urinals in men's toilets usually far outstrips the number of WCs in women's toilets - hence the queues at the ladies. Women also tend to be the people caring for the very old, the very young and the disabled, so a lack of suitable facilities for these groups affects women as well.
* With an increasingly aging population, public toilets are needed to ensure that people are not housebound or lead very restricted lives due to the lack of toilet facilities. It is the intention of the Government to provide support to help older people live in their homes and the community for as long as possible, but Age Cymru has reported that public toilets are a lifeline for the elderly, and without them many people would be unable to leave their homes.
* Incontinence is the invisible disability, as people do not like to admit to it, but there are many people who suffer from weak bladder syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, and prostate problems, to give a few examples. These problems can be made worse by lack of toilet facilities, and restrict people's lives and employment opportunities.
* Not being able to answer 'the call of nature' when needed, can lead to health problems, which leads to greater pressure on the National Health Service.
* The Government is anxious to get people out of their cars, and make more use of public transport. It also wants people to walk and cycle more for health reasons. Many will not do so without adequate public toilet provision.
20th October 2011