A fundraiser has been launched to repair the disabled toilet in a South Bristol park after vandals got in and smashed it up.
The toilet in Victoria Park was discovered completely trashed this winter, and with the council’s parks budget strapped for cash it could be weeks or months before the toilet is back up and running again.
So local resident Ruth Drury set up a fundraising appeal on the GoFundMe website, hoping to raise £750 to clean up the toilet and make it useable again.
Within 24 hours, the fundraiser had reached halfway to its target, as people who live around Victoria Park, in Bedminster and Totterdown, donated an average of around £10 each.
“So many people use them and it would be great to have them back to useable condition, but we know there are no funds for this,” said Ruth.
The disabled toilet, which is open seven days a week from 7.30am each morning, survived the widespread closure of public toilets by the previous city council administration, but with parks budgets frozen for several years, parks like Victoria Park have been reliant on ‘friends of’ groups of local residents who fundraise for improvements. The Victoria Park Action Group is backing Ruth’s appeal.