LIFE IN LOCK DOWN - PUBLIC TOILETS

Now that Boris has spoken and we're all allowed to travel how ever far we want to exercise, the latest topic of conversation that seems to be popping up on all the Facebook pages of the tourist hotspots, is the fact that public toilets are still closed. Within about an hour of someone posting the question, 'Why aren't the toilets open?', there's about 150 comments and I have to say a lot of them are very negative and aggressive towards the day visitors who want to use them. However, although I never comment on these type of posts, I feel that this is my blog and so I thought I'd put forward my point of view.

Firstly, we all know that Boris's speech on Sunday evening re the lifting of lock down was a complete shambles which threw up more questions than answers. My interpretation was..............Boris wasn't telling us all to go out for hours on end. He was telling us if we wanted to we could. Most shops/leisure facilities are still closed so why would toilets be any different? We're still in the middle of a major pandemic (Scotland & Wales are still in lock down) and we're going to have to do this social distancing thing for a long, long time yet. How on earth do you social distance in public toilets?

Secondly should public toilets re-open they would all need a permanent member of staff employed for the duration of the time the toilets were open to manage the queues and utilise extra cleaning procedures. After all, you usually only know if all the cubicles are occupied once you have actually walked into the toilet building so what are you going to do if you get in there and have to wait? Stand right outside one of the cubicles and wait for someone to come out? You're hardly going to be 2m away from another person in that situation are you? Obviously I'm talking from a female point of view here. .................It might be slightly easier to close off every second urinal in the men's toilets, a bit like closing off every alternate self check out in the supermarket. Lol.

And if all the comments on the Facebook posts are to be believed, a large percentage of the population think that public toilets are disgusting, dirty places where germs are harboured in normal times. You can just imagine all the negative comments that would be popping up on Facebook if the toilets were to re-open.

Personally I think that the toilets should remain closed. And this is only my opinion, but if you can't go out for more than an hour without needing to go to the toilet then you shouldn't be going out for longer. It's not a necessity that you go out on a little jolly to a tourist hot spot. Just stay home. Just because Boris said you can drive as far as you want (as long as you return to your home the same day), doesn't mean that you should do that if you're going to need to go to the toilet every hour. And before I get a deluge of comments that say that some people have medical issues and need to go more often........................... yes, I understand that and in normal circumstances it would be totally acceptable to expect to be able to go to the toilet while you were out. But these are not normal circumstances. We're months and months away from getting back to normal. In fact life will probably never get back to what we considered normal before Covid-19 arrived in our lives.

Today I walked for four hours with my dog. And when I say 'walked' that's what I mean. I walked continually for four hours. I didn't stop for a rest, I didn't stop to eat or drink or buy a coffee and I didn't need to use a toilet when I was out. Oh and that's another thing...................... perhaps if everyone stopped thinking that it was essential to buy a coffee or take a bottle of water with them on the dog walk; then perhaps people wouldn't need to go to the toilet quite so often. Just saying.

See you all tomorrow.

Toodles.