Early Closing Is Inconvenient

1.05.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 10th Aug 2009

Here's a conundrum… If you lock up public conveniences early you protect the facilities from vandalism but people end up peeing in doorways.

Well, there is an answer that has found favour in Richmond on Thames - pay a couple of hundred pounds a year to a few of the pubs in return for letting the public use their toilets. A simple sticker in the window can inform passers by of the relief offered within.

Far from being a burden for the pubs, the landlords that have tried it say their business has increased with many of those caught short stopping for a spontaneous pint.

I did suggest this in a development plan early last year but as the Broadwaters residents had commented on the problem, it seems worth repeating.

Neville Farmer

Parliamentary Spokesman