Cash-strapped councils are making it almost impossible for people to spend a penny while out and about.
More than HALF of Britain’s public toilets have closed in the past decade, leaving just 6,000 in operation.
And town halls have reduced what they spend on them by more than £10million in the past three years, say campaigners.
Worse still, the British Toilets Association predicts another 600 council-run loos are set to close this year, leaving entire towns without a single public convenience.
The BTA’s warning comes after David Cameron promised to do more to halt the declining number of public loos.
He said he would look at exempting them from business rates, saving councils tens of thousand of pounds a year.
Town halls are not legally obliged to provide lavatories, so they are often one of the first targets when it comes to cuts.
Raymond Martin of the BTA, which campaigns for better public facilities, said: “We have lost around 50 per cent of our toilets in the past 10 years and we estimate there are only 6,000 or so left.
“Councils do not get any financial support from government for them and they can’t afford them.
“Councils really want to provide these facilities, but commercially and economically they can’t afford to do it.”
What makes it worse is loos have traditionally been liable for taxes, just like “non-domestic” buildings such as shops and offices. Running them costs local authorities more than £100million a year while earning back a meagre £4.5million from punters spending a penny, according to Government estimates.
And the escalating cost of staffing, repairing damage caused by vandals, or bringing Victorian buildings up to standards required by modern health and safety legislation is making the loo crisis worse.
Some vintage public toilets have been reinvented as trendy bars, restaurants and even nightclubs. In some cases, architects have kept the original mosaic floors and tiled walls and turned the old urinals into tables and intimate alcoves.
Britain’s first public convenience opened in August 1852 opposite the Royal Courts of Justice in London’s Fleet Street. But a typical toilet block now costs £12,000 to £15,000 a year to maintain. Providing a full-time attendant can push up running costs by another £25,000 a year.
So the search for public toilets in many towns and cities has become more and more desperate in recent years.
A survey of 252 local authorities in England last year showed 18 per cent of their lavatories had been shut.
Manchester has cut the number from 17 to just one while Cornwall is trying to sell off all 40 as part of a £196million savings package over four years.
Carlisle has halved its public toilets from 14 to seven in just five years while Newcastle has 11 after closing five.
Some council areas, including Shropshire, North East Derbyshire, Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire and North Dorset, no longer provide any public toilets at all.
Town halls have introduced charging for the first time, meaning people have to pay 20p or even 50p to use the facilities.
Mr Martin said the loos were important to local economies and that having safe, hygienic toilets could attract more visitors to towns and villages.
Caroline Abrahams of Age UK said: “Decent public toilets are vital to many older people. Worrying about being caught short in later life can have a devastating impact, resulting in many people being stuck at home.”
Unison claimed the lack of public toilets was a particular problem for parents with children, as well as the elderly.
Spokeswoman Heather Wakefield said: ‘We have come a long way from the days of Victorian sewer-streets, awash with human waste. It should be the measure of a civilised society whether people can go to the toilet when they need to, without having to pay.”
Outdoor workers like builders, postmen, transport staff and binmen are hit particularly badly. Ms Wakefield added: “Relying on the goodwill of cafes, pubs and restaurants is simply not good enough – particularly when ‘customers only’ is a regular policy for businesses.”
The National Association of Local Councils has put pressure on Mr Cameron to tackle the problem by calling for parish and town councils to be exempted from paying business rates on public loos.
NALC spokesman Derek Liddell said: “They are important for people with medical conditions, for older people, disabled, pregnant mums and families. So the Government needs to help local councils keep these essential services open.”
The Department of Communities and Local Government is holding a review to consider the business rates exemption.
A spokesman for the Local Government Association, which represents councils, said: “Councils are doing everything they can to keep public toilets open With substantial reductions to their budgets, they have had to make tough choices.”
Fight to save village loo
There’s a revo-loo-tion going on down in Pangbourne, writes Julia Corbett.
The village, once the home of Wind in the Willows author Kenneth Graham, had the chain pulled on its only public loo on Friday night.
After West Berkshire town hall washed its hands of it, Pangbourne’s parish council shut it because it could not find the £50,000 needed for repairs over the next five years on top of its £14,000 annual running costs.
But now locals are fighting back through a 1,000-strong petition and Facebook page to stop a closure they fear could deter tourists and shoppers.
Campaign leader Mike Fellows, 68, said: “The public toilets are really important for visitors. We have people on business trips, walkers taking the Thames river path, and tourists.“
Shopper Mike Hutchings, 71, said: “I had prostate cancer so access to a public a toilet was essential for me.
Florist Emma Sampson added: “As someone with children it can be really bad if they are caught short. I think the closure will discourage people from coming to Pangbourne.”
After a protest at the loos yesterday, the councils have promised to look into ways to keep the toilets open.
Desperate times in Manchester
We visited Manchester and found the sole surviving loo tucked down the side of the town hall, away from the main shopping areas.
The council has urged stores to sign up to a “community toilet scheme” where people can nip in to use the facilities, but only a handful like Debenhams and House of Fraser signed up.
In another experiment, four continental-style plastic “pissoirs” were placed at weekends in the city’s Piccadilly Gardens.
But there was no provision for women and the £23,000 project was abandoned.