Our most basic of needs go unmet as decent public toilets disappear

Decent public toilets long found in towns and villages across Scotland used to offer a sense of civic pride and dignity.

Today, we learn that across 19 councils across the country, the total number of conveniences has dropped a third since 2007.

Long gone are the days when clean, hygienic spaces were easy to access with conveniences, some which offered an extra sense of comfort with an attendant and perhaps even a pot plant or two.

Times change, budgets shrink and priorities on public spending shift. We are used to seeing what went before becoming obsolete as time marches on. Public phone boxes, once an essential part of everyday life and our street furniture, have fallen quiet given the phones in our pockets, their reassuring sight and traditional role not enough to justify their existence in BT’s overheads in many cases. While our ability to make a call when we need to have increased beyond measure, the same is not true when nature calls.

The drop in public toilets comes as some parts of Scotland welcome unprecedented numbers of visitors, a trend which intensified when the pandemic fueled the rise in staycations. Communities living in the midst of rising tourist numbers – and the modern phenomenon of so-called dirty camping which turned the great outdoors into a great big open toilet – worked to solve their own problems, finding innovative ways to create services. They brought toilets to the people and helped meet the most basic of all our needs. Surely more public investment is justified when these needs will always be there and, amid our ageing population, will surely get more pressing over time.