Sligo County Council and Sligo Business Improvement District
set to pilot the European “Nice Toilet” Concept.
Public toilets, or more so the lack thereof, continues to be a hot topic for many towns and cities throughout Ireland and beyond. Frequently, we hear the public outcry that “there are too few public toilets in our town centres” or “the care and maintenance of public toilets is not to an acceptable standard”.
Yet despite the citizen anger and concern around the lack of public conveniences, there is much evidence to suggest that even where local authorities provide public conveniences, citizens are extremely reluctant to use these facilities, citing reasons such as lack of maintenance, poor hygiene, antisocial behaviour around such spaces and vandalism of units.
From the local authority perspective, the installation / provision of public toilets is a challenging undertaking. First and foremost, achieving consensus on the appropriate location of public toilets in any town centre will always be controversial. From a financial perspective, the procurement and installation of public conveniences does not come cheap.
To allow the citizen to “spend a penny”, a local authority will have to commit to a spend of approximately €150,000 to install one public toilet. Annual maintenance costs typically run at €30,000 per unit. And even where a local authority commits to such a financial investment, the rhetoric will be that the toilet “is in the wrong location” or “how do they expect a bus oad of 50 tourists to queue up for one public toilet”.
There is an evidence base in Ireland that the annual return on a public convenience is €1,500 to €2,500. Not a good financial proposition for any organisation, be they public or private.
Our European neighbours may have found the answer. Numerous towns and cities throughout Germany and Switzerland have adopted the “Nette Toilette” or “Nice Toilet” concept. The concept is based on a collaborative approach between the public and private sector, wherebylocal authorities make an annual contribution to a number of town centre businesses,
who in return permit the general public to use their toilet facilities. The participating businesses place a sticker in their window to inform the public that they are welcome to use their facilities.
A great international example is the city of Bremen in Germany, who, reckon it saves approximately €1 million per year by using the ‘Nette Toilette’ scheme. So successful is the scheme that it has given Bremen the best ratio of public toilets to citizens in Germany.
In conjunction with Sligo Business Improvement District (BID), Sligo County Council are intending to pilot a similar concept. WC Sligo, a public and private sector collaboration will be rolled out in March 2024. This pilot scheme will see the Council and the BID partner with businesses around the core town centre streets to create a network of toilets which will be accessible to the general public from early morning until late evening.
The scheme is optional, with businesses deciding for themselves whether to participate or not. However, it is important to note that as is the case, every participating business retains the right to permit or refuse entry.