The Need the Loo campaign was started by a group of Coventry people who are working with Grapevine’s Connecting for good to campaign for more and better public toilets, starting with the provision in the city centre.
At January's Collaboration Station they posed the question...
What matters most when you need to spend a penny?
With the help of the Connecting For Good community they drew up a list of basic requirements for public toilets. To help them decide what were the "must haves" and "desirables they used the British Toilet Association’s best practice guidelines and also used the feedback from the findings from the Need The Loo survey (see below)
Their hope is that their "bog standards" will be adopted by the organisations and companies who are responsible for the public toilets in Coventry City Centre and used as a practical guide to improve their toilet provision. Anne Forgan commented:
"In an ideal world, we would like to see more public toilets to be provided, but with squeezes on Council budgets, this isn't really likely in the short term. We can however, make the best of what we've got and encourage toilet providers to take a more positive approach and give Coventry people (as well as tourists) a better experience, so they'll feel happy to come into the city centre and use the shops and cafes."
And the winner is...
They even had time to start designing the "Best Toilet Award". They hope this could be awarded to organisations that go above and beyond to create the best toilet experience. The team feel that the toilet providers that manage to consistently improve the standard of their loos need to hear our thanks and what better way than to be crowned with an award!
Why do we need more and better toilets?
The British Toilet Association campaigns nationally to promote the highest possible standards of hygiene and provision in all “away from home” toilet facilities across the United Kingdom. They state that we all need to use the toilet several times each day when we are away from our homes, at work, on holiday or simply commuting from place to place. This becomes even more urgent if you belong to one of the many specialist user groups who suffer from medical conditions that require you to have immediate access to the toilet. Just having access to clean, hygienic toilets when we need one is simply about our basic human rights and it fulfils an important requirement for our…
Health & Well-being
Equality
Social Inclusion
Privacy & Public Decency
Whats next for the Need The Loo Campaign?
The core team are in talks with Coventry City Council to tackle the 5 recommendations put forward as a result of the survey findings.
They are hoping to start conversations with the developers of City Centre South to ensure that their are easily accessible public toilets provided.
They are looking for new members to either join the core team or volunteer their time and skills to help the campaign to achieve its goals.
They would like to work with businesses to raise awareness and suggest ways they could improve their toilet provision.
How can you get involved?
Contact Melissa, the Community Organiser supporting the campaign: mvsmith@grapevinecovandwarks.org
