Well, thats me finished with Kettering town centre.
Just been down to the town and whilst there decided to use the newly refurbished toilets, but whats this? a pay turnstile to visit the toilets i helped pay for through my exhorbitant rates.
Not on your nelly matey.
Resolved now to shopping via the internet even more than previously.
Or is it me?
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How much does it cost these days to spend a penny gord?
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40P at KX Mainline Station, same at Birmingham New Street
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>>40P at KX Mainline Station, same at Birmingham New Street<<
That's 8 bob down the pan then.
:(
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Whereabouts GB? I didnt know they had refurbed them, the old ones were nasty mind you! I think they spent all the cash on hanging baskets last year.
Still, the High Street is a dead concept anyway, far better to turn all that space into housing.
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Unfortunately it's probably necesssary and reasonable, though it's damned annoying when you don't have the change.
There are running costs on top of the building cost that will go on for as long as they are there.
An entry fee won't help much with that I suspect, but it might help to keep them in a better state. Many people don't attach any value to anything "free" and treat it accordingly.
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The toilets are situated in the Newland Shopping Centre, ok its 20p but that isn't the point.
It seems that some local authorities and shopping centre managers are hell bent on making the High Street as unattractive as possible to the very people they need to survive, the dwindling number of solvent customers.
Its not just in towns either, the state of and lack of public toilets are a national disgrace, its a basic human need not something that can be ignored.
Its also not fair that responsibility for public toilets seems to have been passed to the likes of McDonalds.
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There is surely an implied deal between the local authority and retailers, recognising that both their interests are best served by having a vibrant and profitable high street:
The retailers pay their business rates.
The local authority in return provides the infrastucture - paved road, street lighting, parking facilities, cycle stands, waste paper bins, waste collection, pedestrian walkways, seating, and loos.
If the local authority starts cheating on the deal by raising business rates but charging for sevices and restricting parking, then the deal is off. Small retailers will shut up shop, and big chains will provide their own facilities out of town.
Are the local councillors surprised that this happens?
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Can you not pee on the rear wheel of your automobile, my good sir?
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>> Can you not pee on the rear wheel of your automobile, my good sir?
>>
Probably an urban myth that commercial vehicle drivers were allowed to pee up against the N/S wheel as and when.
I'll do you a deal FF, i'll pull up at halfway point on my next work journey and pee against the wheel if you do the same, Arnie or Bruce would stroll across the wing nonchalantly...)
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>> Probably an urban myth that commercial vehicle drivers were allowed to pee up against the N/S wheel as and when.
Goes further back than that. Horse and carriage days IIRC.
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>> Goes further back than that. Horse and carriage days IIRC.
>>
I wonder if that was ever repealed and if it still applies to more modern commercial carriers.
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I don't know all the ins and outs, but I remember SWMBO saying our local council (Wokingham) closed the town centre loos, and replaced them with an agreement with some of the local retailers that punters could use their facilities. Not sure if it's working out though. I hardly ever go there anyway to shop...
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>> I hardly ever go there anyway to shop...
We don't even take the kids to the Carnival Pool to swim any more, much less go there to shop. I have never known such a small town suffer with such frequent road closures and seriously obstructive road works.
The place is a constant traffic jam. It's not worth the effort.
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In the last 6 months , we have been to Hanley - central shopping area of Stoke on Trent - twice.
Parking cost and hassle, traffic and other places as alternatives with free parking ..
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When abroad I'm always happy to pay for 'loos as they tend to be spotlessly clean if they have an attendant. UK 'loos are generally pretty horrid. I'd pay.
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I've long wondered at this country's lax attitude to providing lav facilities. I unfortunately suffer from IBS x2 (Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Irritable Bladder System) so am a somewhat interested party.
The last problem I had (and it's happened before) is you need a 'p', choose a petrol station and decide to fill up with fuel earlier than you need to, so you can use their facilities..then when you go to pay they tell you they haven't got a public toilet.
The conversation went like this (Esso, Warrington):
"So where do you go then"?
"Well there's a staff toilet, but we can't let the public use it"
"So you don't mind if I 'p' behind the car wash then"?
"Oh no. you can't do that"
"Well I either use the toilet in there or go out the back of the car wash, because the whole point of this stop was a loo break, your choice"
" You're not allowed to use the inside one"
"Ok"
.....and 'p' out the back I do. Done that several times now. Cheeky gits, they are quick enough to take my money, but can't provide me any basic facilities.
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Never been tempted to tell them you'll pay after you p'd and come back with wet hands, explaining the lack of washing facilities?
I doubt they could accuse you of bilking, but then I expect you to know more about that than I.
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LIDL in Spain have customer toilets: LIDL in the UK do not!
There are very few public toilets in Spain; shops and bars are expected to provide free use of their WCs to anyone.
I used to buy something if I needed the loo, but it's not obligatory.
In Southern Spain, at least, every bar and caff is obliged to provide free (drinking) tap water to anyone off the street who requests some. (Dehydration in 40C is dangerous!)
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>> I unfortunately suffer from IBS x2 (Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Irritable Bladder System) so am a somewhat interested party<<
Sorry to hear that Wp, would I be correct in thinking your daughter suffers from the same condition,
or was it Crohn's in her case?
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>> Sorry to hear that Wp, would I be correct in thinking your daughter suffers from
>> the same condition,
>> or was it Crohn's in her case?
>>
No not mine Dog....she provides plenty of the stuff, but is only 1 years old, so it's par for the course.
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If I need a slash and there's no squalid free urinal or 20p mechanical one, I go into a pub and ask nicely. Can't remember ever being turned down.
I have sometimes been in the desert in places which are more or less dead flat and have no cover to the horizon in any direction. For a pee you can stroll away fifty yards and keep your back turned, but for a pony in broad daylight you have problems really if you are neurotic enough to want privacy. If you walk far enough you may spot a shallow watercourse or fold in the ground, but you can't disappear completely.
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Hmm, it seems there's a good few of us feel as strongly about this.
Maybe we should start a protest pee off, in towns where they don't provide facilities all simply pee en mass into the gutter, a high street dirty protest, not enough coppers to nick everyone and i expect this might well be viewed with sympathy anyway by a good number of officers who without fail will have bladders as faulty as the rest of us.
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>>she provides plenty of the stuff, but is only 1 years old, so it's par for the course<<
Say no more squire!
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They started charging in the public toilets in Betws y Coed - I think they charge 20p. They have a person employed to collect the money. It pays for itself apparently, has reduced vandalism to nil as it has with other activities deemed anti-social. Most of the income comes from out of county by the bus-load. Local Council Tax payers were supportive I believe.
www.northwalesweeklynews.co.uk/conwy-county-news/local-conwy-news/2010/11/18/20p-charge-to-use-betws-y-coed-toilets-to-continue-55243-27670822/
The Welsh Government has a scheme whereby local business' offer toilet facilities to the public. Good idea in principle.
tinyurl.com/a6u6zun
Last edited by: R.P. on Fri 22 Feb 13 at 17:46
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>> Local Council Tax payers were supportive I believe.
The problem is that your average council tax payer is probably no more a big picture thinker than your average council member.
If asked whether they want to pay for it out of their council tax, or whether to charge the toilet users, many will plump for the latter (depending upon how likely they are to be toilet users themselves). The same would apply for whether a car park should be free.
They are probably not thinking that the attractiveness of the shopping areas, might actuallty reduce their council tax, through increased business rates revenue.
That said, it will probably take more than free loos to save the high streets. I only venture there if I need to go to the bank.
Last edited by: SteelSpark on Fri 22 Feb 13 at 17:01
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I'm used to pay turnstiles going to the toilet.This is goung back fifty years in the low country.Used to be ten cents toilets where always clean do.
Shopping is so much easier on the net.Ordered some new car mats for the citroen 22 pound halve the dealers price.
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'Sorry to hear that Wp, would I be correct in thinking your daughter suffers from the same condition, or was it Crohn's in her case?'
That was my daughter Dog. Diagnosed with Chrones just under a year ago but everything under control at the moment :)
Last edited by: Fullchat on Fri 22 Feb 13 at 17:19
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>>Diagnosed with Chrones just under a year ago but everything under control at the moment<<
Ah, I can see how I got my wires crossed then, glad to hear it's now under control Fc.
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Well i dropped an email to our local very Conservative MP about the town toilet situation, surprisingly he's expressed (probably privately groaned loudly into his porridge about the moaning minny) quite an interest and provided me links to my local councillors as well as the local shopping centre manager, presumably that being a hint to give them some GBH of the ear 'ole as well as he, no harm in giving them something to do even if its ignore me or try to fob me off.
Have sent reply to him interesting to see if he gives 'em some stick and will annoy the others in due course, never been a PITA to local authority types before so this is new ground for me.
Somebody's got to do it..;
PS he did mention that Kettering BC which closed the market place toilets reckoned each use of said loos by a member of the public cost £50, will have to peruse the consultation links he has sent me to see how that figure was arrived at.
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>> Well i dropped an email to our local very Conservative MP about the town toilet
>> situation,
>>
Probably got you down as a cottager, GB
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Well my address starts with xxxxx Cottage (pretentious but i didn't name it and seeing as our house was built roughly 20 years after the others we have got a number'B' so helps the postie), so he won't be far wrong.:-)
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How depressing (from the BBC).
High Street store closures (the beneficiaries):
* Payday Loans +20%
* Pawnbrokers +13.2%
* Poundshops +13%
* Supermarkets +3.6%
* Coffee shops +3.4%
* Betting shops +3.3%
* Charity shops +2.7%
I'm beginning to think a greater proportion of blame can be laid at the feet of local authorities more than government, as they have more control over this. Take Aylesbury, for example (since I live in the general area).
* The centre isn't pedestrianised, allowing minicabs to hurtle through and park everywhere. Probably the biggest problem and easily solvable.
* There's a market, but it's half-*****. Compared to say, Wiesbaden in Germany, it's appalling. But it could be easily fixed. Get rid of the cheap 'n nasty gazebo things and replace with proper EZY-UPs, or equivalent. Bolt to floor and make sure the fabric is clean. Insist the sellers (a) use tables and (b) don't sell junk. At the moment it's like a junk shop with the express purpose of flogging stolen mobile phones.
* Put some benches etc in. Jesus wept, it's not difficult to get this stuff right.
* Put a separate bike path round it so they're not riding through the middle.
* Get rid of the knee high chains that limit the access to the square and funnel you into the shopping centre.
* Free car parking, perhaps? On this note, when crossing the road, how about giving pedestrians priority at the lights instead of making them wait two complete cycles before turning the green man on?
To be honest it's crying out for the sort of redevelopment the IRA carried out in Manchester 20 years ago. Irritatingly there's a lot of potential and it's a surprisingly busy place even during the week.
Which brings me back to my first point - the local council sent a glossy magazine round yesterday with no news in it whatsoever, but an article where they proudly stated that there are three separate councils in Aylesbury and they've all got separate shiny new buildings. These buildings are only semi-occupied and lit up at night. The housing association has it's own building and associated expenses.
I'm sure I can't be the only person who wants to line up the entire council and slap them hard, repeatedly, in the face.
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 28 Feb 13 at 10:16
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It's not just there FF - here in Weston we've recently had parking charges imposed on all the back streets around the town centre. You used to be able to park there for free for IIRC two hours. Meters all along the roads now, and notices advising on camera enforcement, etc. The parking bays on these streets which were previously busy all day every day are now frequently empty, and it goes without saying the shops close by are losing trade.
The only beneficiary is the Tesco store about 100 yards out from the centre with free parking. Needless to say their car park seems much busier than it used to be, and I'm sure that a lot of people who are parking there just shop in Tesco and go home.
North Somerset Council may be making a small short term gain from parking - and presumably enforcing the new parking charges comes at a cost to the council - but are going to lose out in business rates when these small shops finally give up, and drive more shoppers away from the centre.
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Same here in Con-wall [except for Camelford :)] councils are Boracic so have to resort to highway robbery.
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Just got back from a week on your patch Dog - another world really, and a real pleasure.
We pulled up at the car park on Sunday afternoon after the drive from Weston, the attendant there asked us what we were there for. When we told him we were staying for the week his reply was "Go on and park the car up, unload your bags, don't worry about a ticket for today, just come and see me tomorrow" before pointing us towards a space. Such a refreshing change from the jobsworth attitudes that prevail round here. He even had an honesty box on the side of his hut - sadly I can't ever imagine someone round here having one.
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>>He even had an honesty box on the side of his hut - sadly I can't ever imagine someone round here having one<<
Things do change in the holiday season of course, when the hoards descend on the area seeking some warm rain :)
The peops are friendly in this part of the Empire, plus it's a low crime rate area, comparatively speaking.
There are people that earn some serious folding green stuff too, but then there is the other end of the scale,
like the people who could well afford the repayments on a £110k mortgage for an 'affordable' home,
but can't possibly come up with the 10% deposit required.
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>> the attendant there asked us what we were there for. When we told him we were staying for the week his reply was "Go on and park the car up, unload your bags, don't worry about a ticket for today, just come and see me tomorrow" before pointing us towards a space.
That sounds like a car park in St Mawes?
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>>It's not just there FF - here in Weston we've recently had parking charges imposed on all the back streets around the town centre.<<
Even the charity shops in Weston aren't what they were.
Does this mean I now have to pay to park on the yellow line opposite my friend's house by the former Lambretta museum?
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Afraid so Mike - I'm pretty sure the restrictions go up that far.
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Another nail in the high street coffin - Dog
