Apologies I had little time so just cut'n'paste info from the Independent news article and didn't realise that the added HTML coding would show up on forum post, I don't think there's any significance other than this is how the writer has decided to introduce their article with heading and sub-heading, I will endeavour to make my posts simpler in future, but I respect everyone's point of view about an emotive issue too, there's obviously no single solution that would work everywhere in the UK as we are such divided Kingdom of nations currently...
@Leadinglights that's interesting about trekking holidays, I am not female bodied currently (this may change in future) so my understanding from my friends who just happen to be trans men and butch lesbians who are fearless and would mostly pass in men's toilets with SheWee at standing urinal, was that as female bodied people, they are able to use SheWee and plastic bottle and wetwipes for passing urine inside tent, or private place, if no designated toilet facilities are available whilst travelling and not knowing the locations of designated public toilets, where squatting may not be safe or practical for many reasons!
@Docb unfortunately, the current legislation for the provision of public toilets does date back to the Victorian era, and therefore there is no legal duty or obligation for local authorities to provide and maintain public toilets, and I think the provision of toilet facilities for hospitality and catering establishments is very much "customers only" at the discretion of the Management, which is why you mostly don't see desperate street homeless people using say restaurant toilets to clean themselves as they are not welcome and have no right to if they are not paying customers, and fourteen years of austerity has led to no public money for public toilets, but even discussing this publicly is preferable to just accepting the status quo, I guess, maybe we could have corporate sponsored public toilets where you consent to watch adverts whilst inside the toilets, every problem has solution!
@Felinia it's great there are still some businesses and retailers who will allow access to their "customer toilets" at their discretion, but nationwide, this is not being replicated and there are definitely no "rights" for the average person to have unlimited unfettered access to say the customer toilets at franchised cafes like Greggs or Pret-A-Manger, and instead at many big city train stations there are turnstiles and you pay to pee for access to public toilets (always use the free train toilets if you are travelling long-distance as there's no guarantee the conditions at the train station are any better!), there are databases and apps for public toilets, but again, I can't vouch for how accurate the details are across the UK...
@HSSS to clarify I found out about the SheWee via my friends who happen to be trans men and butch lesbians as they are mostly able to "pass" in public toilets designated for "men" without frightening the horses, as way of highlighting the public protests described in the article where women en masse trespassed in men's toilets in response to being told by politicians and authorities that all public toilets were for everyone, and I wasn't suggesting that anyone goes to the public square outside town hall and pees freely in public place, I think in keeping with the SheWee website, if you are travelling and have tent, or go behind dumpster in an alleyway, or have friends who can hold up towel at beach, it's easier to use SheWee to pee into disposable plastic bottle or reusable container than scour for miles looking for designated public toilets which may not be open or available or unhygienic, there are no perfect solutions, and it seems many people want public toilets to be made available to them in the UK in any case, ahem, billions of pounds of public money wasted on HS2 and Rwanda by our government...
@LancashireLass maybe these are specific to football match crowds, but I was referring to portable standing urinals which are very much designed by and for male bodies only, typically with long trough and walk-in, or plastic freestanding with four private standing urinals in circular shape, with zero provision for female bodies, except the long queues at the bars! These were not sealed portaloos with doors typically seen on building sites or at outdoor festivals, it was just an example, everyone needs to pee in public toilets, so these designs for football crowds are very problematic and also not long-term permanent solution, think I have answered separate point about SheWee's now!
@Robin good luck with accessing toilets at your outdoor event, the first diabetes drugs I have tried have made me housebound for days and weeks and when I have tried to get some control back over my life, I have been shocked at how unhelpful people and businesses can be making excuses to not provide access to toilets because there's no legal duty or obligation to do so, and I doubt I am alone in this, but as usual most people are too embarrassed to publicly state they have toilet needs in public as outlined in the article, so it's been an easy process for local authorities to remove public toilets... I also note in big cities and urban areas, there is new technology such as UV lights which show up white powder drugs and CCTV at the entrances to public toilets in shopping malls which are private spaces with private security, so there are deterrents to people abusing public toilets too.
www.independent.co.uk
www.shewee.com
