Elderly people 'in tears' amid lack of public toilets in Bath
Councillors have unanimously voted to review its public toilet provision
Last updated 24th Jul 2025
A lack of public toilets in Bath has left elderly people in tears and pushed people away from local businesses, councillors have heard.
Bath and North East Somerset Council unanimously backed a call to review its “very few and far between” public toilet provision in the area at its meeting on July 17. But top councillors have warned it will be a “huge challenge” to improve the situation.
Addressing the council meeting, local tour guide Ed Browning said: “The one constant negative is the embarrassment of apologising for the lack of public facilities.” He said that elderly people had been reduced to tears after not being able to reach the loo in time.
His family also run the delicatessen in the Guildhall Market. He said: “Aside from ‘what’s a scotch egg?,’ the most consistent question I get on a daily basis is: ‘Where are the toilets?’ It has always seemed ridiculous to me that a market with a delicatessen, a coffee shop, and a cafe has no public toilet and I have to send people out of the market and away from local independent businesses to supermarkets and chain coffee shops.”
Councillors were voting over a motion tabled by Robin Moss (Westfield, Labour), the leader of the Labour opposition on the council, to assess the need for public toilets in the council’s Public Toilet Provision Strategy and “prioritise better provision of clean, accessible public toilets across B&NES.” Mr Moss said: “For many people, a lack of public loos actually stops them going out.”
Shaun Hughes (Midsomer Norton North, Independent Group) said that the lack of public toilets in Midsomer Norton was one of the issues most commonly raised with him. He said: “We know this affects footfall in our town, but more importantly excludes large sections of our community. It undermines dignity. It makes our town less accessible.”
The council’s cabinet member for economic and cultural sustainable development Paul Roper (Kingsmead, Liberal Democrat) seconded the motion which he said was already something under review and being prioritised. But he warned: “We will face a huge challenge on providing the necessary funding to significantly improve and increase the current provisions.”
He added: “The issues we face are not just about funding. I cannot overstate the significance of vandalism and anti-social behaviour. Our existing facilities are subject to significant vandalism and in some cases within a matter of hours of being repaired they are shut again.”
The vote in support of the motion on public toilets came immediately after councillors unanimously backed another motion calling for the council to have the power to be able to introduce a tourist tax — although it will not be able to do so unless the government changes its rules. Mr Roper said that, if introduced, money from the tourist tax could be used to fund public toilets.
The Labour group said there had been 27 public toilet sites across Bath and North East Somerset in 2011 but were just 20 listed on the council website today. There are 16 council public toilets managed by Healthmatic which cost 20p to use in Bath and North East Somerset, and four operated by community organisations and parish councils. But there are also privately-operated public toilets in the city, such as the Southgate Plaza public toilets on Railway Street.
Unusually, every vote which went before the council at the meeting received unanimous support from the six different political groups on the council. Chair of the council Liz Hardman (Labour, Paulton) said: “I think this might be a record.”