Women protest over Home Office’s £36k unisex loos

WOMEN have been avoiding new £36,000 gender-neutral lavatories at the Home Office because men are leaving their cubicle doors open while they’re inside.

A notice has been placed outside the unisex toilets at the department’s Westminster headquarters asking men to ensure they only use them with the doors shut because their behaviour was keeping female colleagues away.

‘Women are finding use of the toilets quite distressing and are not using these toilets as a result,’ it continues.

Five male and five female loos have been converted to ten unisex facilities, each with three cubicles.

Freedom of Information requests revealed that the bill for remodelling them was £28,892.50, while signs bearing a picture of a lavatory and the words ‘Gender Neutral Toilets’ cost an additional £8,070.70, bringing the total to £36,963.20.

The Home Office said the WCs were designed to create a comfortable environment for all staff and that it was among a growing number of Government departments introducing gender-neutral facilities.

But James Price, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign group, said that if the new facility was not serving its purpose, it meant public money had been ‘effectively flushed away’.

He added: ‘ Public spending should be predicated on how people behave in real life, not on how some mandarin thinks they ought to behave on paper. If these facilities

Shut that door! The notice on Home Office lavatories are not being used properly, inclusive towards a very small then lessons should be learnt to number of trans-identifying people, ensure money isn’t wasted on companies and public authorities similar projects.’ have actually made conditions

Christian Concern chief executive significantly worse for Andrea Minichiello Williams women – as nearly everyone predicted said she was not surprised that would happen. women felt uncomfortable at having ‘We hate to have to state the to share toilets with men. obvious, but men and women –

She added: ‘By attempting to be and boys and girls – need separate, single- sex toilets. This is something women fought hard for in the past – and still fight for in parts of the developing world today.’

The Home Office is among several major organisations to have introduced gender-neutral loos.

The Army removed two ‘Ladies’ and ‘ Gentlemen’ signs at its £44million headquarters in Andover, Hampshire, and changed to unisex lavatories this summer.

The BBC, which has 417 transgender staff, has gender-neutral toilets in all its buildings.

The Corporation also revealed it will soon give staff paid time off for sex change surgery.

Channel 4 created gender-neutral toilets at its HQ last year, and in March, Google announced it would be installing them at its office in central London.

Sanitary bins were placed in male lavatories at Newcastle University after the idea was approved unanimously by the students’ union in June. The move is meant to help gender-neutral students use the facility they were ‘ most comfortable with’.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We are committed to being an inclusive employer and creating an environment where all staff feel comfortable at work.

‘The works contracted came out of a budget reserved for building maintenance and modification.’