Public toilets in Bristol are set to be reopened after the Greens running the city council made a pledge to do so – despite voting against Labour proposals to do just that. An amendment to the annual budget tabled by the opposition group suggested spending £1million to reverse Labour’s own policy under then-mayor Marvin Rees in 2018 to shut all 18 on-street WCs.
But although the Greens voted it down at the meeting on Tuesday, February 25, while the Lib Dems and Conservatives abstained, they committed to spend a lot more than a penny on public loos in 2026/27 and indicated they would reopen an unspecified number the following year.
Community union ACORN, which this week accused Labour of hypocrisy, has campaigned for this to happen and said it was now on the verge of victory. Labour was heavily criticised by the other parties at budget full council and accused of “rank opportunism of the worst sort”.
When the party’s Bristol City Council administration closed the toilets, it replaced them with the community toilet scheme, where shops, cafes and other businesses are supposed to allow non-customers to use their lavatories, but it has been far from consistent, with a lot of staff unaware it even exists.
Cllr Al Al-Maghrabi (Labour, Frome Vale), moving the amendment, said: “Austerity forced tough decisions in the past but I’m not here to dwell on the past, I’m here to move forward. I’m here to fight for the people of Bristol who all agree that opening public toilets is a top priority.”
The £1million would have come from either a council investment fund reserve or through borrowing, with the annual £54,000 loan repayments to come from a cut to councillor extra allowances by reducing the number of policy committees from eight to seven, meaning one fewer chair’s additional pay, and deleting the allowance for the group leader of the party that has the leader of the council.
Sign up to receive daily news updates and breaking news alerts straight to your inbox for free here.
The latter is currently Green and the former would also likely be Green because the group chairs six out of the eight policy committees. Cllr Kirsty Tait (Labour, Hartcliffe & Withywood) said: “This is a win-win. It takes courage to rethink past choices.
“Closing these facilities was difficult but a necessity at the time but today we have the opportunity to reverse that decision. This is about dignity, health and ensuring Bristol is accessible for all.”
Cllr Jenny Bartle (Green, Easton) said: “I’m happy to confirm that the Greens publicly commit to spending some of this investment fund money on public toilets in 2026/27 as suggested in this amendment. We’re also committing to find ongoing funding to actually keep them open – as a standalone amendment this would just deliver a lot of shiny beautiful toilets that remain closed.
“So it sounds like we should support this, it’s our policy. But seemingly Labour want to make it hard for us to vote for this. They’ve put in a cut to councillor special allowances which presupposes the outcome of ongoing deliberations in the committee model review group, and requires a change to the constitution to implement.”
Cllr Andrew Brown (Lib Dem, Hengrove & Whitchurch Park) said: “I don’t think I’ve seen anything as opportunistic as this amendment. It suggests reopening toilets, closed by Labour, is funded by adding to the tens of millions of debt that Labour left us, and the servicing of that debt is supposed to come from councillor allowances, second guessing the committee review group and independent remuneration panel, although they’re not suggesting cutting their own allowances.
“The whole thing is so transparent it could have been printed on the tracing paper that passed as toilet paper when I was at school.”
Conservative group leader Cllr Mark Weston (Henbury & Brentry) said: “I remember when Labour proposed closing all the toilets and the other groups saying this was a stupid idea, it was disastrous. We were told, no, the community toilet scheme will be brilliant.
“No, not at all. In fact this amendment accepts the reality we’ve been pointing out for years that it wasn’t. It was a really bad idea to close them to begin with.
“What’s a worse idea is letting them rot for eight years and fall into complete disrepair and then suddenly claiming a holy grail of money has landed and you can suddenly fix it. The amendment has no budget to maintain them, there’s no budget for toilet roll, there’s not even a loo block in there. This is rank opportunism of the worst sort and it’s the worst kind of budget play I’ve ever seen.”
ACORN Bristol secretary Wesley said afterwards: “Back in 2021/22, our Unlock Our Toilets campaign made it clear – Bristol residents don’t want their public toilets shut. Over 2,000 people signed our petition, and councillors from across the political spectrum backed budget amendments to reopen them.
“But despite majority support, the Labour mayor blocked the vote and kept them closed. Now, Labour have backed the reopening of our public toilets, and the Greens have pledged to ACORN that the toilets will be reopened by 2027/28.
“A win for our campaign is on the horizon. Public toilets are an essential service, especially for elderly and disabled people, parents, workers, and anyone who simply needs to go.
“We’re pleased to see a timeline in place for reopening, and we will keep the pressure up to get them open as soon as possible, for the benefit of our city and all Bristolians.”
ACORN member Geoff said: “I live in Kingswood and like many others have avoided visiting central Bristol for some years, simply because Marvin Rees closed the toilets. I used to also enjoy a walk round Fishponds where the toilets outside the park were a godsend on a cold winter’s day. I would love to get back to those visits.”
A Bristol Labour spokesperson said: “We are disappointed that Green Party councillors voted against all 11 amendments tabled by our group, including two that would see public toilets reopened or support the creation of new ones. The ‘service changes’ included within this budget, such as the privatisation of meals on wheels, will undoubtedly make council staff redundant.
“But, as soon as we ask local politicians to give up unnecessary extra salaries, on top of their basic allowances, all hell breaks loose – it’s hypocritical. The Green Party receives extra allowances for the leader of the council, the deputy leader, and the leader of the largest party.
“This is now a committee system, the party holding the post of council leader does not also need a separate allowance for someone else to be their party group leader. This would help to fund the borrowing costs to build new public toilets.
“It is entirely valid to ask whether our residents want all three of these extra pay-cheques or new public toilets. We put forward a common-sense, progressive plan to provide more in-house placements for children in care, keeping kids in care local to Bristol.
“By reducing our reliance on expensive out-of-area private sector placements hundreds of miles away, we would save the taxpayer over £1million a year by providing homes for only seven more children. We proposed spending the money we save from this on maintaining new public toilets, keeping black bin collections fortnightly, and restoring funding for short breaks for disabled children that was cut by the Green administration last year.
“Sadly, the Green Party are resolute in opposing every idea Labour councillors put forward. This is not consistent with the cross-party collaborative politics they preach.”