Toilets not obvious for visitors to city

I am responding to letters (10th November) from Matthew Smith and Francis Harvey regarding public toilet facilities in Bath.

Leaving aside their highly questionable claims that these facilities are adequate for residents, these gentlemen have totally misunderstood

the problem faced by tourists arriving or departing by coach.

As a long time Bath resident, privileged to live in our beautiful City, I am well aware of the obscure locations they describe.

However how can a new visitor to Bath know to go down steps into Parade Gardens (paying a £2 entry fee) or up the stairs to the tiny facilities at the Victoria Art Gallery to take two quoted examples?

Additionally the door-keeper has confirmed that the toilets hidden away in the Guildhall have not been open to the public since precovid.

Now that our woefully misguided council has destroyed the Avon Street coach park and its associated toilets, our numerous coach borne tourists arrive and depart via Terrace Walk.

Once affectionally known as “Bog Island”, there is, alas, not a toilet to be seen! The steps to the old

disused toilets only give false hope to those in desperate need!!

What a disgusting welcome to Bath.

What is urgently needed is to provide all year round temporary facilities at Terrace Walk, similar to those provided for the Christmas Market, pending an eventual very long overdue refurbishment of the old underground facilities and the construction of a small adjacent above ground facility for those unable to negotiate steps.

Additionally adequate shelter from inclement weather for those awaiting their coach home should also be provided. The legacy tiny bus shelter is utterly pathetic!

Sadly all of this could have been provided in advance of the illjudged Avon Street closure using some of the £3 million uselessly expended on the so-called “Ring of Steel”.

Did it not occur to our council and their security advisors that, in the unhappy event of Bath being targeted, terrorists would choose to strike at a softer fringe target or use a weapon other than a motor vehicle?

Roger White

Bath