Council urged to provide more public toilets in city centre

Nicholas Thomas, local democracy reporter

Newport should have more public toilets if it is to host successful events in the city centre, a councillor has claimed.

Cllr Chris Reeks said he hoped upcoming events like the Newport Food Festival and the annual Christmas lights switch-on would draw crowds to the city.

“When we have those big events, we should have the infrastructure in place for them,” he explained.

‘Toilet strategy’

Councils do not have a statutory duty to provide public toilets, but are required in Wales to produce a “toilet strategy” to consider the needs of the public.

Cllr Reeks said the council has been too slow in updating its strategy, and there had been “very little action” to improve the service for residents and visitors, leaving them “in a quandary as to where they can spend a penny”.

Cllr Saeed Adan, the cabinet member for housing and planning, said the delays in updating the strategy were down to “continued pressure on our staffing capacity”.

Private sector

The city council operates “a small number” of publicly-accessible toilets, and provision is “heavily reliant” on the leisure and private sectors, he said, adding the council was now “content” its updated toilet strategy complies with legal requirements.

Cllr Adan also said the council was “exploring” ways to increase the number of toilets available to the public, by building partnerships with local businesses.

“We’re very much looking to the private sector,” he said.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Cllr Reeks later said he hoped the council wouldn’t “weaken its position” by relying too heavily on private companies to offer their toilets to the public.

He said more public toilets in Newport “should be the case”, noting the lack of facilities could have a disproportionate impact on older people.

His comments echo similar warnings by Age Cymru, in August, when the charity said research had found a lack of good-quality public toilets in Wales “makes it difficult for many older people to get out into their communities”.

The charity said older people “need to be confident that they can access public toilets when they are out and about”, and urged councils to be “innovative” by either opening public buildings’ facilities for people to use, or by “working more closely with local businesses to increase the provision of public toilets”.