Call for more public toilets in city centre

Nicholas Thomas Local Democracy Reporter

More public toilets should be available in a Welsh city centre, a councillor has argued.

Chris Reeks said Newport City Council’s strategy for providing public toilets appeared out of date.

He described a resident’s recent struggles to find another public toilet in the area because the facilities at the Friars Walk shopping centre were out of order.

“They managed, only after some time and searching, to locate facilities in the library,” he told colleagues at a council meeting on Tuesday.

“As the make-up of the city centre has changed, and the number of shops has declined, it appears to have had an effect on the number of public toilets available for general use,” Cllr Reeks added.

“Outdated”

But Newport City Council’s toilets strategy, published online, dated back to November 2020 – and was apparently outdated given a Welsh Government requirement that guidance had to be “reviewed within a year of the last council elections”, he told the meeting.

Council leader Jane Mudd agreed there had been a “shift” in the nature of high streets, which has had an “impact on other facilities that are available”.

“I recognise what you say with regard to the availability of public toilets across the city,” she told Rogerstone North representative Cllr Reeks.

Consultation

The council leader said the upcoming public consultation on a new placemaking plan for the city centre will be “a great opportunity” for people to put forward suggestions for improvements to the area – including more public toilets.

Residents who take part in the consultation will have the chance to “identify things that are missing from our city centre that they’d like to see there”, Cllr Mudd explained.

“I welcome this and I’m sure that you do too, and I’m sure that you look forward to the opportunity to contribute to that yourself,” she told Cllr Reeks.

The Welsh Government publishes an online map at www.gov.wales/find-toilets-open-public which shows toilet facilities around Wales that are open to the public.