A report will be published by the City of Edinburgh Council today (Friday 31 July) outlining plans for councillors to consider reopening more public toilets.
The Policy and Sustainability Committee will consider the report next Thursday (6 August) following a city-wide review and a proposal to reopen public toilets in ‘hot spot’ areas near busy parks and beaches, which was approved by the Committee earlier this month.
With warm weather forecast from today and lockdown restrictions having eased considerably in recent weeks, people are reminded to use the nearest open public toilet if they are caught short in areas such as the Meadows and Portobello Beach as these have become increasingly popular. Our street cleansing teams are also working extremely hard to keep the city clean and tidy under pressure and we need everyone to help us keep Edinburgh beautiful by binning their litter or taking it home with them to put in their own bin.
Adam McVey, Council Leader, said:
It’s fantastic that people will have the chance to enjoy some lovely weather in our beautiful parks and beaches in the coming days as restrictions have eased considerably but if you are, please remember to follow Scottish Government social distancing guidance. People should also remember to plan ahead and take any rubbish home with you or use bins provided. Please also be respectful if caught short and use a public toilet or your own at home if no other facilities are open nearby.
It’s really important that we protect public health at the moment and we will open more public toilets when we can. I would ask everyone in the meantime to plan ahead to minimise use of public toilets where they are open and keep our parks and beaches clean and tidy for everyone to enjoy.
Depute Leader, Cammy Day, said:
It’s great that we have so many beautiful spaces across the city where people can enjoy the sunshine but we need your help to keep them clean and tidy. To try to stop people from littering in the city we’ve teamed up with Keep Scotland Beautiful and Zero Waste Scotland this summer as more and more people are now enjoying our parks, beaches and other open spaces.
We’re supporting Keep Scotland Beautiful, who have wrapped our bins at Portobello with anti-littering and dog fouling messages to help to keep the water clean and we’re putting Zero Waste Scotland anti-littering messaging on some of our bins in other hot spot areas. We’ve also put around 40 extra bins out at the Meadows/Bruntsfield links and Newhaven.
Public toilets currently open until 30 October:
- Pipe Lane in Portobello
- Hope Park in the Meadows
- Ross Bandstand in Princes Street Gardens
- The Courtyard at Saughton Park
- Bruntsfield Links
- Hawes Pier, South Queensferry
- Cramond