Sunday People

Issues No.1 & 2

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WHEN I was a child, shopping trips into town with my mum always involved several wee stops.

Every time we passed a public convenienc­e she had to pop in and spend a penny.

Because, mum said, she didn’t want to get caught short in Mac Fisheries or be bursting for a wazz in Woolworths.

So, of course, I am now a preemptive piddler too. And if I pass a public lav when I’m out I’ll pay a visit “just in case”.

But it irritates friends who know that I can easily hold on until we reach the cafe or pub and use the Ladies there.

Because I am not constraine­d by the dreaded “urinary leash” that causes misery for millions of elderly, disabled and vulnerable people.

The people tied to their own homes by a fear of being caught short and the nationwide shortage of loos. Councils are not legally obliged to provide public toilets, so many have now closed theirs to save cash.

In the past six years numbers have fallen by 19 per cent, and now a survey has revealed that one in five Brits fear leaving home because of their bladder issues.

Some people who could wait don’t bother trying though – they just relieve themselves in the streets and people’s gardens.

Then there’s “flypeeing” where people widdle in bottles or coffee cups and lob them out of car windows.

The Royal Society for Public Health calls the dwindling number of public loos “a health and mobility inequality we cannot afford to ignore”.

And the British Toilet Associatio­n is campaignin­g for them to be kept open as part of the drive to reinvigora­te our high streets and support local shops and traders. Because how can you expect people to splash the cash when there’s nowhere in town to spend a penny?

We Brits are famous for our lavatorial humour.

But the shortage of public convenienc­es now facing this country is no laughing matter.

And we have to protect our right to carry on at our convenienc­e.

The BTA’S “Use Our Loos” campaign is urging businesses to make their toilets accessible to the local community and for shops, cafes and bars to let people use theirs for free.

They are also supporting the Great British Toilet Map, a database to help you find the nearest ones, and to link existing community toilet schemes across the country.

One of those is an “Age Friendly” project, where shops display logos offering older people wee stops.

It’s in Banbury, Oxfordshir­e, where I grew up.

And my mum would be simply delighted.

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