REVEALED: How we spend a penny in Derry

There are currently 338 toilets in Derry which can be accessed by members of the public - yet only 25 are operated by the local council.

And the toilets located in the one of the city’s main civic buildings, the Derry City Council offices on Strand Road – cannot be accessed by the public, despite it being a public building.

These were just some of the findings presented to the council’s Environmental Services Committee at which Raymond Martin of the British Toilet Association (BTA) made a report to the local council on the current level of toilet provision in Derry.

Mr Moran appeared before the same meeting last year when he was asked by council to undertake the report.

Since then, he and a number of inspectors from the BTA have visited the city  to compile a list of what toilets are available to the public and he has now suggested a number of sites where Derry City Council should now consider erecting public toilets.

Mr Moran said there were currently 338 toilets located at 44 sites around Derry where toilets could be accessed by the public, adding that the report did not include toilets located in either pubs or clubs.

Included in that number are 87 were male urinals while 178 are female toilets.

He added there was currently no ‘internal or external’ public toilet provision at the council offices on the Strand Road, and said that while there were toilets on the ground floor of the building, these could not be accessed by members of the public.

Mr Moran suggested the large area outside the building, which was the location of temporary toilets during the Clipper festival last year, was a possible location for what he described as ‘semi-automatic’ toilet block which would be available to the public on a ‘24/7’ basis.

He added there was also no public toilet provision at the Derry Visitor and Convention Bureau (DVCB), and that there was also no toilet provision planned for its new premises at the former Ulster Bank building at Waterloo Place.

Mr Moran said while there were public toilets available at the Guildhall, there were no signs outside the building to alert members of the public that there were toilets available inside.

He added that with regards to the nearby Victoria Square public toilets, that council should now either upgrade them or consider their closure and ‘complete removal’, due to what he described as the facilities being ‘misused and abused due to drugs and alcohol’.

Mr Moran added while the city centre, and Waterloo Street in particular, did have numerous pubs, these toilets were not suitable for families or young mothers.

Therefore, he said, public toilets would be necessary in or around the Waterloo Place area, and added that a vacant site currently occupied by stalls and street traders at the corner of William Street would be the ideal location for public toilets.