2011 – a year to remember or a year to forget?  Cherish or dismiss.  Even at this late stage, we believe the jury should be out.  

I don’t think any of us were doubting the severity of the issues facing our industry and the public sector in general at the start of the year.  So in many ways, the year has panned out as expected.  But, with a glass half full outlook, many of the surprises we have experienced have come in positive ways.

1.      The pace of innovation has increased significantly, with our previously traditional clients willing to discuss and consider different solutions to their issues.
2.      The understanding and access to Spend to Save money has improved.  This has led to a number of schemes being brought forward as opposed to delayed.
3.      The concept of TUPE as a benefit rather than a threat to enterprise has been better developed and our ability to use these provisions to maintain knowledge banks in Council services has improved.
4.      Local Authorities are encouraging their major infrastructure partners to subcontract elements of service to the smaller specialist firms. Better reflecting the previous ethos within Councils.

So, yes, it’s a grim landscape, with less money to deliver against increasing expectations.  But this is accelerating the positive aspects of enterprise, and we hope this will ultimately lead to an improved and better targeted public toilet service.

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas and New Year...

Roger and I have just spent three days in Edinburgh at the Solace conference - Solace standing for "society of local council chief executives".  The delegates are the Council big bananas who run the Country outside of Westminster.

We were there promoting both the toilets and the H2evidence range - including the very popular Voxpop.

Much more interesting for me is that Edinburgh was where I met my wife, went to University and spent several very happy years.  So while the day was focussed on justifying our presence in Scotland's capital - the evenings were spent roaming old haunts and enjoying the thought of being 20 years younger.

Roger just about tolerated the reminiscing - which was very good of him as it must have been a bit of a broken record!

A team from "We Need the Loo" have sent a petition for us to help publicise.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/15258

Public toilet provision is at the discretion of local authorities, and there is currently no legal requirement for Councils to provide any toilets at all. In fact 40% of public toilets have closed in the last ten years. The campaign group ‘We need the Loo’, a joint venture between the Women’s Design Service, the British Toilet Association and the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering has therefore launched an online petition to ask the Government to make adequate public toilet provision a legal requirement.

They are asking for adequate toilet facilities for everybody, including men, women, children, babies and disabled people.

Good idea says this Public Toilet Business - and anything we can do to help promote will be done forthwith...

There is a familiar theme to blogs written in September.  Whether you have taken a late holiday - avoiding the school hols - or firmly settled back in, by mid-late September all the staff know that the push to Christmas has begun.

In the Public Toilet business, this means a list of jobs:

1. Checking the insulation on all pipes

2. Reducing any pooled water spots near doors (which have a tendency to freeze)

3. Fitting winter tyres onto the Scottish Vans.

Oxford Street in Winter 2011/12  etc etc

You would be forgiven for thinking that our business has died and gone to Finland!  Last year, from about mid November onwards, we spent most of the time fighting frost and the pernicous effect it can have on pipework.  Maybe this year will be warm, and we'll be having to deal with Legionella!

Bring it on.

The riots of the recent week have read like an A-Z of our public toilet locations.  Lewisham, Enfield, Hackney, Croydon are all bases for us, and it seems nothing was spared.  From Currys down to the Age Concern shop, the rioters have shown no mercy.    We have been particularly worried for one Danfo toilet in Mare Street, Hackney but so far it remains standing.  (The current unit replaced a previously fire bombed toilet) 

If you look carefully at the photo, we think he had the toilet roll before it went up. 

Here we are watching a European ‘neighbour’ about to fall into the abyss – and who’s getting it in the neck?   The Public Sector!   Here at home, we are on the brink of a strike because fellow workers are being forced to take the hit to bring our finances under control – and who are these “fellow workers”?   The Public Sector!   As comedian David Mitchell said on Question Time this week, “we treat Public Sector workers as if they were parasites”!   How refreshing to find a company like Healthmatic who doesn’t.

A company not just content to take cash from public funds, but a business with a genuine motive to give it back.    A business partnership which genuinely benefits both sides of the deal.   Innovative modern toilets which make reasonable charges for use and very clever devices to help providers measure public response to their services – for my money, here’s a set of proposals that actually helps the “Public Sector” show how accountable they really are.   Trust Healthmatic to get it right!

(note from Ed:  Almost censored due to over enthusiasm for the mother company, but praise is rare, and we'll take it when we can.  Give that man a job!!!  BTW , a prize for anyone who can guess the writer of the guest blog slot, and all submissions welcome clue:  http://www.premierhygienic.co.uk

Loughborough is known as a University town, where serious athletes do serious training.  Home to aspiring England runners, riders and rubgy players, Loughborough has thrived on the injection of youth into this previously sleepy Midlands backwater.

The local Council, Charnwood,  has also spotted that that the increasing numbers of youth in the area has boosted demand for the public toilets, and in line with the raising of tutorial fees, have introduced a payment system for the three main toilets in the town centre.   We completed the work with some trepidation having seen what angry students were capable of in London.

Far from being met by the protests over fees, the town residents and students have responded with an unexpected enthusiasm and over 10,000 people used the toilet over the first weekend, netting the Council a useful £2,000. 

Planning has been submitted for the new toilet on the Southbank.  This will be the first custom made "retail" public toilet of its kind, charging 50p for access and will contain 12 individually styled unisex cubicles and a urinal area.

Situated on the busy path between the London Eye and the Southbank centre, the toilet has been sized to cope with 500,000 people per year, and will be manned during the extended opening hours of the South Bank traffic.  Needless to say, we are very excited by the development which we hope will be the first of a number across the Capital.

The building, designed by Mark Power Architects, will start construction in September.  

Healthmatic has taken over the management of the existing Public Toilets run by Premier Hygienic.  This is an exciting development for both parties, which will both be left to focus on their respective skills.

Premier has been the No.1 supplier of cost effective solutions to Councils for toilets, while Healthmatic has always focussed on the higher quality, more service orientated end of the market.

Les Cairns, from Premier, will be working with Healthmatic.  For those of you long in the tooth, you may know that Les has previously worked with our leading lavatory business and we are delighted he has decided to return.

After several months of dancing round the handbags, Healthmatic and Main Communications have agreed to join forces and offer the Evidence as one of our mainstream products.

This is great news for both the company and our clients, as it means we can now offer data collection at more competitive rates in even more challenging situations.  Given the nature our company, you won't be surprised to learn that the majority of our "evidence collection " to date has been in toilets around the UK and Ireland.  Main Communications have typically been focussed on parks, woodland and other out of the way type places.

As well as the remote counting of people, we will also manage attitude testing and asset monitoring.

This is a product which has been standard in all of our toilets, and we see this as a great opportunity to apply our skills to wide range of situations. 

The New Year has started at breakneck speed with all Local Authorities (and suppliers) checking under the mattress for any spare pounds to spend before the Year End.

The majority of enquiry this month has been around our H2Evidence products and the ability to identify when and how many people are using a facility - not just toilets - on any given days of the week/hours of the day.  It uses web based reporting to bring information to the desktop of the officer responsible for the gathering of the info, and allows a certain amount of judicial editing where there has clearly been a clear local distortion of the numbers.

Our second wave of toilets is being installed across the Isle of Man, and two Urilifts are being installed this week into the heart of London's Financial centre, outside the Bank of England.  The team is then off to Chester to fit some interesting Tudor style frontage toilets.

If you look back through the blog, you will find a regular section on the Loo of the Year.  The showpiece of our Public Toilet industry, it is taken very seriously by one and all.  As you see, our team were once again in the thick of the action.  Pauline (who runs our cleaning teams in south Cotswolds) and Maria Wheatley ( the client officer in Cotswolds) held their nerve well to walk away with the family fortunes - as presented by Les Dennis himself.

Healthmatic won an impressive array of cups and five star awards, and returned home on the battle bus a little lighter headed and as always - Flushed with Pride!

 A few months ago, a small group of men were spotted starring at a steel urinal just by Embankment tube station.  The engineer holding the crowd to attention is our Urilift specialist, Pete Atkins, with Steve Presland from City of London and two of his Councillors.

Due process later, site surveys done and  shop consultations completed, the City have ordered two Urilifts for locations in the heart of the Financial district.  

Most Urilifts have to cope with yards and yards of lager, but presumably these units will have to deal with the after effects of 1959 Moet & Chandon.  Different situations - probably the same results...

"the user stumbles in here..." 

On the one hand, at least the Chinese have signposted the toilet.  On the other, it is clearly a useless sign, with no knowledge or hope of the "in need" punter getting to the toilet in time.  

But all over Europe we see examples of Councils spending many £1000's on their toilets, but the visitors to an area simply have no idea where they are or how to find them.

Westminster have employed a toilet text device to help their tourists.  "Text TOILET to 80097" using the SatLav service and you will sent the location of nearest toilet.  The website www.findatoilet.co.uk has a reasonable database.  Apple have an App.

More traditionally, people should be able to spot and follow clear signage. Don't bother with multiple languages, everybody around the world understands the male and female symbols.  Just please Councils  - Sign the toilets.

Last night was the British Toilet Association AGM, and anyone whose anyone in the toilet world was there! We were not inundated with celebrities, but some of the faces you might recognize from the Loo of the Year brochure! 

   Ozzy failed to show, despite his obvious interest in toilets....  George's membership was up for review.

The main topic of conversation was inevitably - The Cuts.  Every officer there was having their budget cut by at least 20%, and some by considerably more than this.  What are the options.  The knee jerk reaction is to say - let close them.  But this has proven to be an electoral disaster for certain councils, and almost always leads to expensive and unnecessary reopening and refurbishing.

The strongest option is to manage the current stock more smartly.  This involves:

1. Knowing when the toilets are being used, and deploy your resources accordingly.  (use time assisted counters for this - see H2 Components)

2.  Introduce Direct Access toilets in strategic locations.  If you rent these, it WILL reduce your costs through reduced cleaning, vandalism and management.

3. Consider charging.  it may not raise a Kings ransom, but it does contribute, and will reduce vandalism and consumables costs. 

Please give us a call on 01249 822063; we are doing regular free reviews for clients looking to reduce costs and we have some simple and effective measures we can help with.

 Enjoy the Autumn,  Don't panic,  keep ahead of the game.

Healthmatic will be on Stand 43a at the LGA.  The Lady at the LGA assures me that everybody who is anybody HAS to walk past the stand on the way to the coffee machine in our hall.  Time will tell....

The conference itself is the major gathering of Council Leaders and Officers each year and the locations alternate between the Sunny (?) sandy beaches of Bournemouth and the Spa delights of Harrogate and this is our first visit.

If you need more info, the web address is http://annualconference.lga.gov.uk/  We will be fielding a full team and look forward to three sunny days.

Sir Peter Gershon was commissioned in 2003 by central government to undertake an independent review to assess how the public sector could exploit opportunities for efficiency savings, so that resources could be released for front-line public service delivery. As a result the Gershon Efficiency programme was about raising productivity and enhancing value for money and efficiency gains were to be achieved through reforms that involved ' Doing the same for less or more for the same'

Healthmatic have the same ethos as Sir Peter, and with the money belts tightening across the country, we are launching our Gershon contract.

All clients working on an annual contract will be offered the opportunity to lock down their costs at an inflation busting rate over the next five years.  This we hope will encourage longer terms stability for both our councils and ourselves in what is clearly going to be a tough time.

 Bring it on! 

Delhi is hosting the Commonwealth Games in October this year, and the excitement in intense in this crazy Indian Capital.  However, following a recent visit, I can confirm that any tourists planning a trip to the Games should consider their lavatory plans!

 Most of the toilets are "open plan" for the men, with small cubicles for the Ladies; doors are very optional; no loo roll, (most are shower or bucket style), and all Public toilets are squats. Its not so much the interior which surprises, but the whole experience.  The heat, the smell, the floors, the sheer dilapidation are all difficult to relate to with our Western Values.  

But the Municipal Delhi Corporation have one aspect right.  This year they will spend over £1m improving their toilets.  They recognise the value that the toilets bring to both the local population and the tourists and have made committments in terms of percentage of budget which dwarf our equivilents.

 Town Criers across the land are now ringing the same note about Public Toilets.

 Probably the most regular call we get at the moment is in relation to Town Councils being handed responsibility for their toilets by the District or Borough.  The obvious theory from the Big Brother Council is "Get then out of my hair" and for the Town they would argue that it gives them more control.  

Towns have a far from universal opinion of this apparent generosity from the Borough.  Often the responsibility comes with no additional money, and a shocking set of toilets which have had no capital expenditure on them for many years.

 In general its not a bad idea though as it focusses local requirements on the local Government.  The theory being that if the Town REALLY want their toilets, they will REALLY fight for them.

However in order to make for a smooth handover, the common problem needs to be addressed:  Cash.   Cash for refurbishment - Cash for Running.

We have seen a number of successful models work for this relationship and handover to flourish, but the one model that seems to be the most successful is the straight Capital payment from Borough/District to Town.  Breckland reportedly gave their Towns £150k.  We have seen a couple of examples of £100k.  These sort of payments give the Town a chance to renovate the block and run it for a couple of years while they get their revenue plans in order.

One thing that we know will not work is handing a poor toilet to the Town with no cash.  That really does get the Town Crying! 

It is already clear to those of us in the business of managing Public Toilets, that 2010 will not be the year that we remember in our dottage as "the year of all years".  Maybe its a Friday afternoon, and maybe I'm feeling a bit blue after a long day, but the fact is that Councils have less money than 2009, or indeed any year that I can remember.

An article on the BBC website  (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7683671.stm ) catches the eye. It highlights the issues around the closure of Public Toilets and the measures being taken by different Councils to deal with the financial constraints.

But, (now rallying),  DON'T despair.  Healthmatic have made a feature of the ability to manage toilets for less cost and with improved performance.  This is achieved through targetting the effort on strategic locations and using research to identify the most effective maintenance and cleaning regimes.

First stop before anybody considers closing a toilet should be to gather evidence, and for this, our specially designed Counters are a valuable tool.  They can help both officers and Councillors identify which toilets are actually being used, as opposed to which they are told are being used.  Check out H2 Evidence counters at http://www.healthmatic.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=164&Itemid=268

Our toilets are tested in all sorts of conditions.  They have been employed in Dubai to help with the Desert Rats, in Newquay to cope with the Drunken Cats, and in the Italian Alps to share with the Mountain Yaks (getting desperate),  but NEVER have we had to cope with  minus 19 degrees before, and Never for over four weeks.

 Yes, some of the older hands in the depots we go to have harked back to '63, the terrific drifting, the never missed a day attitude and "our schools still opened"  chat,  (Its usual to point out that their final  P60 should be in the post), but in the modern era, our equipment has not had to deal with the conditions like this.

 Our engineers have kept going....  and have been sending in a few photos of their toilets in the ice and snow...

Healthmatic win External Contractor of the Year

After a nail biting day at  the motor cycle museum, Healthmatic emerged victorious as the Contractor of the Year for provision of Public Toilets.  Amongst all the glitterati and excitement of the day, it was difficult to keep a lid on the tension as the prizes moved inexorably to the conclusion.  But despite copious wine and spumante, a composed Roger Berry stood, large on the stage, cup in hand, glasses half cocked and gave an emotional acceptance speech which took the crowds up and down through the full gammet of emotions.

We have just launched the new Convenience Coupon Partnership ("CCP")

There is a download available, and we have numerous flyers to send out, but the basic essence is this:

1.  Healthmatic install new toilets into your town for FREE.

2. A charge of 50p per use is levied, BUT the user receives a 50p coupon for the local High Street after washing thier hands.

3. The clean and relieved user then spends the coupon on the High Street.

 Result:  The Town has free toilets, encourages good hygiene and pushes people towards the High Street.

If you would like to know more information about the CCP, please get in touch.

Peter White & Peter Atkins met with me on site this week to help demonstrate the Wessex APC which has recently been installed into Goldsworth Park in Woking.  This toilet had been fire bombed the day before we were due to demonstrate the unit, and both Peters had to work hard to bring the interior up to scratch before the prospective client arrived.

As always, the sun has appeared as School and our Industrial term starts in earnest.  After a week or so of getting ones feet back under the desk, I think that it is time to plan seriously for the next six months.

The first step in planning anything to do with public toilets is to know what you are dealing with.  How many people use the toilet, what type of people, when and how often.

Increasingly, this is not just finger in the air guesswork, but a factual study of toilet numbers over a number of weeks and possibly months.

Once numbers of people have been established, it is possible to make reasonable assumptions about toilet usage under different scenarios and with different configurations.

You can buy counters relatively cheaply, but they will mostly give you a fairly 'cheap' (read: unreliable)   result.  Your alternative might be to rent a battery based counter from Healthmatic, which is web linked to give you times of day/week/month data over the airwaves, without expensive and sometimes unreliable counters being checked by readers.  Our readers will give you a full report on usage, which will form the backbone to any recommendation that you make to your Councillors.

Its not the thing you would usually shout about, but it is still an essential part of any job - the Snagging.  We now have eight new toilets in Reading, some in-builds, some new stand alones, and it is inevitable that there will be the odd minor problem.

This morning Andy, Ramon and myself inspected and checked all the sites with our client, Simon Hollingbery, his manager, Mick Hill, and the project Manager, Ian Nicholls.  Barring the odd door lock issue and a minor discussion over the prescence of SOS flashing lights, the event passed without too many problems.

Bring on the Friday evening Beer!!!

When a Local Authority is considering cutting its toilet Service, one of the most often considered parameters is 'cost per flush'.  In some cases, the Authority will site a very high £ and pence per flush cost to illustrate the point that the toilets are bad value for the Council.

However, I think that this is basically too crude a measure, and the more important stats are the Utility Value per flush.

In the eighteenth Century, a philosopher by the name of Jeremy Bentham set about measuring people's satisfaction from various activities.  The measurement unit he used was a 'Util of Pleasure'.  2 Utilts from a good walk, 4 Utils from a pint of Mead, maybe 10 utils from a roll in the hay.    He also identified the concept of diminishing utils.  Taking the Mead example, the first pint gives him 4 Utils, the second may give him 2, and the third might give him a negative Util as he slips into the land of nod.   We can readily apply this theory to the supply of public toilets.

A toilet positioned on a High Street with hundreds of accesable and decent alternatives within 50m will provide a good service for a user but if it were to disappear, would not cause that much problem.  In this case the utility value of the toilet is low to the user as there are many alternatives.

A toilet in a park with a children's play area presents a different proposition.  The parent and child are playing in the park and they need the loo.  The only toilet in the park is open and gives both users enormous relief.  Their utility value of using this toilet was HIGH.  However it is likely that the cost per use for the Council is also high as the park will only be used at certain times of day and year.

It is important therefore for a Council to value situations not simply on a basic cost per flush basis, but to consider more the 'utils of pleasure' per flush.  The Council can rightly justify a high cost service which brings significant value to a small number of individually important citizens, but cannot justify this where there are ready alternatives for the public.

If you want to know more about this excellent and thoughtful man, please try the link below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham

Yesterday was the UK half Iron Man championship on Exmoor, (www.ironmanuk.com) and on my way to and fro I was able to take in a few of the local sites.  To most normal people of course, the sites would be the Mendips, Glastonbury Tor and maybe a quick look at Wells Cathedral, but when you are in toilets, sites ARE toilets.

The thing that really crosses your mind on Exmoor is how to deal with high numbers of visitors without the access to mains drainage.  Rural homes are fine as they will use their own septic tanks and 'klargesters' to deal with their effluent.  But if you try attaching a public toilet to a septic tank, you will spend your life fishing all sorts of undesirable items out of the system in order to unblock the wishbone.  Similarly a Klargetser which gets severe indigestion at fairly standard toiletries.

^{Its not just the Exmoor ponies that need the toilet}

Those searching for toilets on Exmoor on the web have a doubly confusing issue as there is a well known brand of 'Exmoor Toilet' which is a portaloo.

Overall, most toilets turned out to located near services rendering the issue not a problem.  But alot of the time it was a question of taking the toilets to the services as opposed to taking the toilets to where they were needed.  A conundrum that I am sure alot of Local Authorities face.

In fact it is one of the main issues in installing a toilet, and we spend considerable amount of our time surveying and recommending cost efficient and people efficient locations.  (There being no point in providing brand new facilities in an efficient location, but with no footfall).  Nevertheless, the cost of services can dwarf the cost of new toilet unless carefully controlled, and Healthmatic is very happy to provide this service.

Lucinda Lambton has added to the toilet debate with a feature on Lord Adonis and his train spotting trip around Britain.   Surprise, Surprise, Lord Adonis found that the state of the Nations toilets was below par and in true style, "demanded that something was done".

Community Toilet Schemes are proving all the rage, with some Councils offering up to £2000 to Cafe's and Bars to open their doors to the great unwashed.

Leading the way has been Richmond and Perth & Kinross. 

Starting a scheme from scratch is a time consuming and tough challenge for any officer, both in terms of the meeting and appointing of the prospective premises as well as the upkeep and management of the proposed locations.

In reaction to this,  Healthmatic has appointed a 'CTS originator' whose job is to act as the start up manager for Councils for new schemes, and to help manage existing.  If you need help or simply advice, please contact our office for a chat.

Doors  - We all have problems with them.   For reasons best known to the under sixteens, they prefer to kick their way through them than a more normal, hand on handle, entry approach.  Now this might be down to health issues associated with their hand cleanliness, a worry we all have.  but whatever the reason, it leaves unusable doors across the public space.

 You can approach this in two ways:

1.  Install highly vandal resistant swing doors which are quad hinged, steel cored and multi point locking. There are two further issues with this technique.  Firstly, you need to invest in a really high quality door, as a door with these attributes tend to be quite heavy, and therefore difficult for Disabled visitors to open, especially in windy conditions.  Secondly, in order to gain maximum benefit from the investment, the doors should be attached to a control mechanism which automatically manages the daily opeing and closing, thereby cutting the cost of this expensive service.

2.  Install High specification, steel core, sliding doors.  These have the great benefit of being less liable to vandalism, as quite simply there are no hinges to break.  We install them as standard on our APC's as they also mean we can forcedly open the door in order to encourage abusers to leave. 

Whichever door approach you adopt, we would urge you to consider the benefits of automatic opening and closing of the toilet.  The physical and environmental cost of the opening closing regime every day is difficult to justify in today's envirnment.

Month one of the world most depressing year is almost over!  Recession, unemployment, falling house prices....  , as if you need reminding.

But......people keep C**ping.  Which is good news for the lavatory industry.  In fact we argue to our bank that people generally c**p more in a recession due to to acute nervousness. If everybody keeps eating, we should just about be able to keep our heads above water (or whatever- its the end of the week)

People have more time to sit on the loo...

It is also good news for the website www.findatoilet.co.uk which is building up a database of public toilets around the country.   Sue, the Lady who runs the site, offers a mobile service to anybody who cares to log on.  It compliemts the text-a-loo offering being pioneered by Westminster.

Seriously though, Healthmatic has been specialising over the last six months on cutting Council costs, while improving service.  We are about to publish a note on the subject, but if you cannot waite, please get in touch.

Toilets are going up in the World.  Last night I was lucky enough to be asked as a guest to a City of London dinner.  It was in the Draper's Hall, which was quite magnificent, with over 100 people arranged banquet style in the main hall.

I was there as a guest of Steve Presland, the Director of the Environment for the City, and neither he nor I could believe that pop-up Urilifts reveived no less than two mentions in the main speeches! 

Although I have been receiving the usual spam over this New Year, nothing has topped the Karl Marx quote which has been sent to me by tens of well wishers.

Everybody is in the office for the traditional Beer and Sausage Roll in the Bug & Spider!  Not sure how many of the lads on the road are actually out there unblocking the UK's drains, but there is no evidence of trouble on the Horizon (touch wood).  We are hoping the damp weather will keep spirits in check, and therefore our toilets in actions.  High Spirits= Lots of Booze = lots of Vandalism!

 All we want is a quiet and easy Christmas, where fellow Brits share their toilet systems happily!!  We wish you a great holiday and a happy New Year.

Flush toilets are not bog standard

The lads stepped up to receive another award.  Given that I am not very tall, what was Richard doing?  On his kness?

Christmas is not Christmas without the Loo of the Year annual jamboree.  This year it was held at the Motorbike museum just outside Birmingham.  Healthmatic keenly packed two tables with our colleagues and customers and had the happy result of joining the Champions League for toilet managers.  The massive overall winner slot has continued to allude us.  This year we were sure that our combination of quality loos and brass necked marketing to the toilet inspectors had tipped the balance, but obviously not.  To view the results visit www.loo.co.uk .

There is always next year......

So much is happening in the World of toilets at the moment that it is difficult to know where to start each comment.  No debate rages harder than 'to charge or not to charge'.  Below is our thoughts on the percentage of people that we see wanting to use a public toilet at different prices.  Any thoughts would be welcomed......

We are always in dialogue with Councis on this subject.  We know from countless surveys that the Public, especially tourists, are prepared to pay for the use of clean safe toilets.  However, if they are asked to pay for smelly grotty toilets, then there will be more complaints than would be expected from a free toilet.

The UK Government has published guidelines to Councils on the provision of Public Toilets.  You can read the text in full by checking our downloads, and looking under 'Information Sheets'

 Good Old Government we say!

I was assaulted by a Japanese loo

 We just loved this article from Jeremy Clarkson.

17th June

Th IWM trade show in sunny Torquay was a roaring success and Healthmaitc enjoyed a busy and fruitful time. There were lots of old friends and some new faces too. The weather was set fair and the stand looked glorious in the sunshine. Our fully working Urilift attracted lots of attention as well as plenty of interest in our Automatic and Semi-Auto toilets, although, as usual, we had a few people trying to use the unplumbed loos!

 Our river cruise on the Torbay Belle was a resounding success. There was a much made of Richard Chisnell leaving his post in the BTA and welcoming his successor, Mike Bone. What a fantastic job Richard has done for the organisation over the years. Please click here to watch him in action.

http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meetingId=1971 

(takes time to come up)http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meetingId=1901

It is sadly the last year for the IWM in Torquay, next year we will see you for another cracking event in London.

Our magnificant stand in sunny Torquay.

The Urilift man, Marco standing tall on his 40th birthday! 

Richard Chisnell receiveing a toilet clock, just what he always wanted!

Torbay Belle Fever!