[The Gut Trust]

People with Irritable Bowel Syndrome feel more deeply than most the recent trend by local councils to close their public toilets.

For us, access to public toilets makes the difference between travelling somewhere, even if it is only down to the shops, and staying and home. It means the difference between comfort and reassurance, and nervousness and panic. In its most extreme forms, it can mean the difference between ‘just-in-time’ and the public humiliation of losing control in the street.

Toilet provision is at the heart of ending the social isolation of people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. But because it has traditionally been difficult for people to talk about their bowel functions, toilets get closed down throughout the country with the minimum of objection - because the people who most need them are the least able to object.

We know, through the success of our 'Can't Wait' card scheme that people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome need to know that they can get access to a toilet when they need to, not when town planners feel they should.

But we also know that the scheme is not perfect - that some shops and businesses either do not recognise the scheme, or are unwilling to help out when the card is presented. We have already successfully campaigned on providing access to toilet facilities in Job Centres.

Our campaign for public toilet provision begins with our Summer Symposium, "Can’t Wait, Won’t Wait: Public Toilet provision in the UK". With speakers from the British Toilet Association and local government, it is the beginning of a campaign which will involve local and central government, town planners, other interested charities, and the general public, to explain the need to retain or provide adequate public toilets, enabling people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome as well as those who have issues with continence to travel and socialise with the same freedom as the rest of the population.