Pub toilets court case on hold

A TWO-day hearing into the city council's decision to reduce the capacity of pubs judged to not have enough female toilets will not take place until October.

Caledonian Heritable, one of Edinburgh's biggest pub operators, took the council to court last week over the controversial ruling that affects three of its pubs: the Pear Tree and Clark's Bar in the city centre, and the Ormelie Bar in Joppa.

Edinburgh is said to be the only licensing board in Scotland that is enforcing the new building regulations rules on existing pubs that means every pub has to have roughly one toilet for every 30 customers.

However, it assumes half the customers are women, meaning an equal number of male and female toilets are required.

Dozens of bars across the city have been ordered to build new female toilets or face having their capacity drastically reduced.