Toilet map shows lack of accessible toilets in Bassetlaw - with just four suitable for people with disabilities

A map of publicly available accessible toilets shows fewer than a dozen in Bassetlaw, as campaigners call for better facilities for those living with disabilities.

The Great British Public Toilet Map tracks publicly available toilets using crowd-sourced information from users and data from councils and other organisations.

It only logs free-to-use toilets which the public can use without having to ask, so “customer-only” loos are excluded.

Analysis of the figures by QS Supplies, a bathroom supplier, shows 16 publicly available toilets in Bassetlaw, including six accessible to those with disabilities.

Sarah Sleet, chief executive of Crohn's and Colitis UK, said: “We know nine in 10 people with the conditions plan their journeys based on access to toilets.

“This is increasingly challenging and isolating as the number of public toilets declines. The fear of being caught short and unable to access a public toilet when required means many people are confined to their homes.”

More than 500,000 people across the UK suffer from these conditions.

Across the East Midlands, 165 of 711, 23.2 per cent, public toilets are accessible. Across England, the South East has the highest proportion of accessible toilets, with 45.6 per cent, while the West Midlands has the lowest, with just 22.9 per cent.

In February, the Government announced funding for more than 100 new Changing Places toilets, which are designed to be used by people with a range of disabilities, to be built across England.

Responding to the news, Shelley Symonds, a campaigner for the Changing Places charity: “The freedom of being able to visit different places and have days out that we can thoroughly enjoy, without the worry of toilet uncertainty or having to cut our trips shorts, is a wonderful feeling.

“Not being able to access a suitable toilet dictates our everyday life and prevents us from even accessing our most local community,” she added.

In 2019, research by the Royal Society for Public Health found one in five of us do not go out as much as we would like due to a lack of available toilets.