City’s lack of public loos ‘outrageous’ PUBLIC TOILETS
A local man has slammed the lack of public toilets in Bath city centre as “outrageous”.
His comments follow his wife and an elderly lady being turned away from the Pump Room loos on December 1.
Dave Workman said the pair were told to use the facilities in Marks and Spencer, where they found a long queue of others trying to do the same.
He said: “The Pump Room toilets are now solely for customers and the employee who denied my wife and an elderly lady access to them and told them to go to Marks and Spencer to use their toilets ought to be ashamed of himself.
“I Wonder if Marks and Spencer gets a discount in their rates for providing this public service. Do they even know?
“It won’t be long before we’re p***ing in the gutters.”
Mr Workman added that his wife was not upset for herself, but for the other lady who was trying to find a loo at the same time.
“She was clearly elderly but that didn’t seem to register with the on-duty jobsworth who told the pair of them to go to M&S.
“When my wife showed her Discovery card that made no difference and when she suggested she could go into the Roman Bath, using her card, and then use the loo he said she couldn’t do that.
“When she did make it to M&S she found a sizeable queue of people including a lady with a disability who had been sent from the Pump Room toilets. She was struggling with the stairs in M&S.”
Mr Workman added that, when extra events such as the Christmas market were happening, extra loos should be provided to cope with the increase in shoppers.
He said: “My wife’s real issue was that by encouraging people to come into the centre of Bath with markets and the like for a council employee to then direct people to toilets provided by a private company seemed outrageous.
“If the council can’t provide decent permanent toilets then perhaps some temporary ones for the Christmas period should have been provided.
“It seems remarkable that places like Wells and Frome can provide good modern public toilets in their central car parks but somehow Bath is too poor and cash strapped to do the same. Maybe the council should review its priorities.”
However, in October, Bath and North East Somerset Council decided to upgrade the facilities at Charlotte Street which were closed in January 2020.
They also considered placing temporary toilets at a suitable location in the city, but this was discounted as a short-term measure only and the option of reopening the key site was chosen instead.
Councillor Jess David, the cabinet assistant for neighbourhood services, said: “In order to keep staff, residents and visitors safe during the pandemic, we still need to restrict visitor numbers at some heritage sites including for use of the toilet facilities.
“This year we have been carrying out improvements to extend the network of public toilets, including refurbishing the toilets in Sydney Gardens and building new ones at Bath Quays.
“We’ll also be reopening a previously closed toilet block at Charlotte Street early in the new year. The locations of all public toilet facilities in central Bath can be found on our website and we promote these on our social media channels too.
“The map is also available in paper copy at the One Stop Shop. I’d encourage anyone who is out and about in Bath for Christmas shopping to familiarise themselves with our map of city centre toilet facilities before they visit.”