Written question WQ92069

I will not be meeting with Denbighshire Council nor are we considering any form of intervention. Local authorities have the power to provide toilets for public use but not a statutory duty to do so. Local authorities take decisions on services and their budgets in the context of the breadth of their responsibilities and are accountable to their populations for the decisions they take.

The Welsh Government provides support to local authorities as part of their annual revenue settlement, which ensures they have the flexibility to make appropriate local spending decisions The Welsh Government recognises the difficulties local authorities have in maintaining public toilets, but also acknowledges that access to safe, clean toilet facilities is important to the public.

For this reason, the Public Health (Wales) Act 2017 requires each local authority in Wales to produce and regularly review a local toilet strategy, that considers the needs of the community as a whole and seeks to identify toilets in a range of ownership that can be brought into wider public use. One of the key aspects was the encourage local authorities to make better use of existing toilet facilities across both public and private sector buildings, beyond a focus on traditional public toilets given the financial challenges of providing and maintaining this type of facility.

In the context of the challenging financial climate. it is more important than ever to encourage creative solutions to better meet the public’s need for access to suitable toilet facilities and to have strategies that are built around the principles of co-production. I would expect local authorities to take every opportunity to talk to the public and representative groups about the challenges they face in accessing local toilet facilities, listening to their concerns and seeking their views and involvement in identifying, and delivering potential solutions.