Gloucester pubs sign up to community toilet scheme

Three Gloucester pubs are being paid around £600 to let non-customers use their toilets as part of a year-long trial of a community toilet scheme.

The Cross Keys Inn, the New Inn, the Robert Raikes pubs and four other businesses will open up their toilets to the public from 5 July.

The participating venues will receive "a nominal sum in the region of £600, inrecognition of the additional maintenance required", according to Gloucester City Council's committee report.

It continued: "The opening of these facilities to the public will provide an improved quality, choice and availability over that currently offered by public convenience alone."

Ruth Bourke-Cross, owner of the Cross Keys Inn, agreed to sign up due to the lack of facilities in Gloucester.

"I haven't heard anything about payment, but £600 sounds like a reasonable amount when you consider cleaning, soaps, water rates and toilet paper expenses," she said.

"There should be something as we are taking the burden off the council by providing facilties." The plan will save the council the £300,000 cost of renovating four run down facilities.

"The big tourist season is coming up and I'm sure there will be a knock-on effect for the business, but the onus is on us to have a clean and tidy pub," said Bourke-Cross.

The scheme mirrors similar initiatives in Lambeth and Richmond in London and elsewhere in the country.