Campaigners have accused Bristol City Council’s opposition Labour group of hypocrisy for proposing to reopen public toilets it closed in 2018 when in power. Members of community union ACORN say the party is using the issue as a political football.
Labour has tabled a motion to budget full council on Tuesday, February 25, to spend £1million reopening lavatories or building new ones, plus £319,000 a year to maintain them. It would reverse a decision by then-mayor Marvin Rees’s administration to shut all 18 on-street public toilets and launch the community toilet scheme (CTS), where shops, cafes and other businesses allow people to use them without buying anything.
In response, the party says more government funding means reopening toilets is now possible and that it has found a way for that to happen. ACORN has campaigned to get some of the ones that were shut to be reopened, with more than 2,000 people signing its petition.
In 2022 its members undertook months of research visiting the 126 firms listed on the council’s website at the time as being part of the CTS to test whether it was working properly. But they found they could not use 28 per cent of the loos they went to, while 82 per cent had no sign on display indicating they were part of the scheme and 65 per cent of the staff they asked were unaware the premises’ toilets could be used by anyone.
The organisation says Labour’s change of heart on the issue is cynical. ACORN member Arvind Howarth said: “People obviously need toilets – it’s just insulting to the people of Bristol that Labour has remembered this now when it’s politically convenient, not when it had the power to restore dignity to the city instead of funnelling the money to the mayor’s office.
“Meanwhile, visitors to Bristol are forced to go in dustbins, our parks are littered with stinking sanitary waste and those who are already struggling, such as rough sleepers, older people and people with certain disabilities, continue to suffer preventable indignity. As ACORN Bristol members spelled out clearly over two years of hard campaigning, public toilets are a matter of equality, they’re a basic necessity, and they’re not up for debate.”
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A Bristol Labour Party spokesperson said: “Under Tory austerity, councils were forced to make difficult decisions. Closing public toilets was one of the toughest we had to make.
“In the run-up to the local elections last year, we weren’t going to make a promise we couldn’t keep – we didn’t believe it was achievable without a change in government and an end to austerity. Following Labour’s election to government, Bristol City Council received a 5.2 per cent real-terms increase in its funding this year, resulting in £27million more than it would have gotten under the Tories.
“The council can afford to invest in the services that matter most. Times have changed and so have we.
“Our focus is on the future and putting forward constructive solutions. The Green Party promised ACORN they would reopen public toilets and through careful consideration Bristol Labour have found a way to make it happen.
“It is a plan that they can get behind, putting party politics to one side. Our amendments to the budget would invest £1million into renovating/creating new public toilets and £319,000 annually into maintaining them.
“We hope other parties support our proposal. ACORN knows where we now stand on reopening public toilets.
“It was one of ACORN’S five key pledges in the run up to the 2024 local elections. Time will tell if they can get other political parties to stick to their promises.”
Labour’s amendments to the Green-led administration’s budget, which all councillors will vote on at Tuesday’s meeting, give two options to pay for the £1million capital cost of reopening public toilets – either using money from reserves or borrowing the cash, with the expected cost of loan repayments to be met by a £54,000 cut in elected members’ allowances.
A Labour source said this would be met by reducing the number of policy committees from eight to seven, meaning one fewer chair’s allowance, and likewise officer resource, and deleting the council leader’s allowance as Green group leader.
Despite ACORN’s criticism, it is urging cross-party councillors to vote in favour of Labour’s amendment and has launched a webpage where people can contact their local councillors to ask them to do so.
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