User:JustinePorto/Public toilets in Wales

Public toilets in Wales, also known as loos, are available in a number of places including town centers, cafes and youth hostels. There is some sex segregation of toilets, though it often is not very rigid and women still require sex specific public toilet infrastructure. The Public Health Act (2017) requires local councils to manage local public toilets.

Public toilets
Toilets are colloquially referred to as loos. Euphemisms are often used to avoid discussing the purpose of toilets. Privy began to be used in the United Kingdom to replace an earlier taboo word.

A 2021 study found there were 15 public toilets per 100,000 people in the United Kingdom. The government in the United Kingdom does not have reliable information about the number of public toilets. Management of public toilets is the responsibility of the local government, per the Public Health Act (2017). The act requires local councils to assess local public toilet needs and develop a strategy to address those needs. The act does not include a mandate that these needs actually be worked on.

A lack of public toilets in England and Wales in the 2000s made it difficult for some segments of the population to leave their homes. This included the elderly, people with health problems and people with disabilities. This left these populations more socially isolated. Some accessible public toilets are kept locked, with people only able to access them if they have a key from local authorities as part of the National Key System.

Toilets are often found in cafes in the centers of towns. Most of these toilets though are only available to paying clients. Youth hostels often have basic toilet facilities.

Women's and sex-segregated toilets
In quasi public spaces in the Western world with toilet facilities, there is rarely rigid sex separation. This includes in large, private homes where lots of entertaining is done. The lack of public toilets in the United Kingdom inconveniences women more than men, creating a situation where women are treated as unequal citizens. Women's toilets often require special sex-specific features. This includes places to dispose of tampons and sanitary napkins. The disposal container is often a large plastic bin. In smaller toilet stalls, this can make it difficult for women to sit because of these disposal bins may touch the seat or a woman may come into contact with them when she sits on the toilet seat. A majority of British women have admitted to squatting or hovering over public toilet seats in order to avoid their butts coming into contact with the seat.

During the Victorian period, a woman's modesty could be threatened by the act of using a public toilet.

Susan Cunningham, who went on to found All Mod Cons, started a campaign in Cardiff in the early 1980s to condemn the lack of public toilets in the city for women with small children. Her efforts soon attracted attention when the local public library in the historic city center announced they were not building publicly accessible toilets by design in order to keep out unwanted elements like drug users and shop lifters. This was in part done as a cost saving effort related to maintenance. The local council also rationalized their decision because private businesses nearby provided toilets. All Mod Cons were unable to change the local council's decision regarding toilet access, but their campaign drew nationwide attention. All Mods Con then started a lobbying campaign against the British Standards Institute as it related to public toilet facilities standards, asking them a lot of questions and eventually being invited to participate on the committee in the early 1990s that was revising BS 6465. As a result of their lobbying efforts, improvements were made relate to women's toilets. In 1994, it almost became law in wales that local authorities had a statutory duty to provide one public toilet per 550 female residents and one public toilet per 1,100 male residents. In November 1994, the bill ultimately failed to pass, despite cross party support, because the bill would have required the government to provide funding for public toilets, which the government was not willing to commit funding for.

One issue for British women is they need to spend comparatively longer time using public toilets than men because of things like menstruation and having less lag time between when the knowledge of needing to peer arises the the actually need to be able to relieve themselves. Things like pregnancy and childbirth also increase the risk of being incontinence, which increases the need of women to rapidly find access to public toilets that men face on a much smaller level.

History
The lack of public toilets caused a stink on the streets in major cities in the 1850s. British people resisted the use of American style soft toilet paper into the 1970s because of a distrust of a product being primarily pushed by American brands. Toilet paper remained one of the most popular ways to clean after using a toilet in the 2010s.

From 2000 to 2020, the number of public toilets decreased by a third. This decline was in part to local governments trying to find ways to reduce expenditures. Between 2007 and 2016, 2,000 public toilets closed across the United Kingdom. The Community Toilet Schemes was created by the government in the late 2000s, facilitating the creation of new public toilets in England and Wales with partnerships between local authorities and local businesses.