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18
Feb
When you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go, but in parts of the Harrogate district it seems you can’t, unless you go early.
That’s because an apparent change in the cleaning regime has resulted in some toilets now being closed as early as three o’clock in the afternoon, causing problems for people caught short later in the day.
The Stray Ferret’s attention was drawn to the issue by a reader, who on condition of anonymity told us:
Sources at the council who also wished to remain anonymous confirmed the reader’s story. They told the Stray Ferret that a new cleaning regime had been put in place in October.
The public toilets in Starbeck - locked by mid-afternoon.
Given the discrepancy between our sources’ accounts and the council’s official response, the Stray Ferret set out to find the truth and this week visited a selection of public toilets – including those at Oatlands, Starbeck and Stray Ponds – between 3.30pm and 4pm. We found them all shut, apparently confirming our sources’ claims. But, in common with the council's website, signs on the buildings claimed the toilets were open till 6pm.
A sign on the Stray Ponds public toilets says they shut at 6pm.
The reader who contacted us said the new was regime was bad, but even the old schedule was not good enough. He said:
But he claimed the situation in Harrogate is symptomatic of a wider trend. He said:
The Oatlands public toilets - locked by mid-afternoon.
He said that providing and maintaining toilets to a high standard made good economic sense, helping to attract people into the town centre, especially those who were more likely to need access to a toilet at short notice.
These include young children, older people, pregnant women and people with a wide variety of medical conditions, such as prostate cancer, muscular dystrophy, Crohn’s disease, colitis and Alzheimer’s, among others.
He said:
In the meantime, North Yorkshire Council said the situation would come under review as the integration process it started in April 2023 continued.
Cllr White said:
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