A toilet-obsessed friend lent us a scanner, and we meant to finally enter the 21st century by scanning a reader’s letter from our local newspaper. However, technical problems got in the way, and we will have to do without it! Here follows, instead, a transcription:
A costly call
As a former York resident who returns from time to time to shop or visit family and friends, I recently discovered the new toilets in Silver Street.
While they are an improvement in some ways, and I do not object to paying some charge for this service, I feel 40p was a bit steep, considering there was no hook to hang things from inside the cubicles (standard in most loos), which meant having to put my bag on a floor which was wet.
To add insult to injury, the hot air dryer did not work properly so I ended up having to dry my hands on my scarf.
(From The Press, 24 November 2010).
Personally, we find airdryers disgusting, and habitually dry our hands on items of clothing rather than risk exposing ourselves to other people's intestinal bacteria, so the airdryers being broken does not make us want to whip out a violin and play a sad tune. However, the lack of a coat hook is nothing short of scandalous, and will of course be investigated:
expect a review shortly!
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The Silver Street toilets replace the old ones in Parliament Street.
Image from York Press. |
Meanwhile, more exciting news from Sweden (my, my, how those busy Swedes do network!): according to Sydsvenskan, the council in Malmö is considering expanding their stock of public toilets! 50 million kronor (roughly £ 4 million) will be spent on building bogs across the city. What is revolutionary is that the city is planning staffed toilets. Unmanned public toilets are a popular, relatively warm hang-out for drug addicts, and this is to be discouraged. Sydsvenskan ends with noting that heeding the call of nature in a public place is likely to end in a fine of up to 1000 kronor (about £80).
For the full article AND PICTURES, see
For information on Malmö, see
