Homeless People Unable to Spend a Penny
Sep 9, 2024
Public toilets are disappearing from British high streets, and those that remain are going cashless, risking the exclusion of homeless people and anyone else lacking a card for payment.
An article by The Big Issue—a street newspaper that raises awareness of the issues facing homeless people and provides them with income opportunities—highlights research from Victorian Plumbing that suggests public toilets could be gone from the UK by 2105 if closures continue at the current rate.
A more immediate problem is that some local authorities have switched from cash to card payments to cover the maintenance costs of public facilities, meaning anyone without a bank account and associated card—or indeed anyone who has forgotten their card, or had it temporarily locked—is unable to access toilets.
The lack of public toilets significantly affects the most vulnerable people in our society who are often in need of these facilities the most. The rapid decline of public toilets can have a huge impact on people’s lives and the addition of card-only payments to access them only makes it more difficult.
One area highlighted as an immediate concern is Nottingham, where just 37 public toilets are available, meaning one for every 8,700 people in the city. Nottingham City Council has also announced plans to make its Greyhound Street toilets accessible only by card payment, which immediately raised complaints from bus drivers who have requested an exemption from charges.
A local councillor says: ‘Unfortunately, the council has no statutory duty to provide free public toilets and charging for them is the only way in which we can continue to keep them open.’ No comment was made regarding the cashless approach.
A petition launched by Victorian Plumbing to require local authorities to provide free toilets fell short of the required 10,000 signatures to receive a response from the government.