PP23: Super Loo

I am fed up of hearing North Americans on a night out in our towns and cities looking on appalled as Jock and Sammy stand in the middle of the road pissing everywhere. If there is one thing I despise more than hearing Americans muttering (i.e. yelling) about "just how awwwwful" British people are, it is when they are absolutely spot on.

I think this problem gets worse the more north you go in the UK. But to put it simply - people should not be reliving themselves in the streets. I don't want to see it, tourists don't want to see it and it is, quite frankly, shocking manners.

Police need to use their (already existing) powers to fine offenders more often but not before an extensive building program takes place to provide our city centres with public toilets. I think my opinions are shaped by the case of Edinburgh, which according to the local press, is one of the worse places for the provision of public toilets. There is quite simply nowhere to go. People do what they do simply because they have no choice!

If new ones need to be built they obviously need to be very accessible, open at all times and very well lit. If they could also use 'grey water' and have a few solar panels on top then all the better - but this is not essential. Recently there was a successful pilot scheme (I forget where), which paid pubs and restaurants a small fee for opening their facilities to the public (as a side note Starbucks has always done this for free). This seems like a far more agreeable scheme than mass construction. Or failing that simply open up our streets to the private sector, I have seen self cleaning ‘20p’ a go super loos in London and they seem to be doing their job without too much fuss.

Regardless of how it is to be done, what is essential is to introduce a little bit of civility into our city streets. My Victorian morality might be shining through here but according to my favourite 'broken glass' theory we can bring about large changes by forcing through simple changes in habit. This is one well worth pursuing.