Battling for the nation's (and Audlem's) loos

As the battle to save Audlem's public toilets, suitably refurbished, gets underway – more details on Monday – a national newspaper, The Independent, published a full page of fascinating information on the public loo yesterday.

It appears, if Audlem saves its public toilets, we will match Manchester. Not only do both Manchester and Audlem have a close neighbour called Salford, they will also have just the one public toilet each.

Manchester is, we are told, slashing the number of toilets from 17 to just one. Birmingham's and Liverpool's provision has already been flushed away and the BTA, that's the British Toilet Association, predicts that 1,000 are likely to close this year – and that's after 30 to 40% have already closed in the past ten years.

The BTA, which organises the Loo of the Year awards (and we have to admit that a member of the Audlem webteam was the proud recipient of this award, an engraved toilet seat, in 1989) says that a public service, first launched in 1852 in Britain, is disappearing fast.

This is despite more people in London using toilets in the West End than visiting theatres, a statistic that will probably be new to most people. They also reveal that Kingston-upon-Hull has one of the few listed public loos in the land, which will ensure its preservation.

Unfortunately, Audlem Online's following listing announcement on 1st April 2009, the day Cheshire East council came into existence, proved to be less than 100% accurate:

New Council to list 'unique' Audlem buildingWednesday 1st April 2009

With the Cheshire East Unitary Authority taking over local government responsibility today, fears that Audlem may be ignored following the demise yesterday of C&NBC have been resoundingly answered on Day One.

The new authority's Public Convenience, Consultation and Recognition Unit has announced that Audlem's public toilets on the car park are to considered for a Grade 2* listing, thus rating the village loos on a par with many fine historical buildings.

A spokesperson for the unit, Prenez Lepiz, said: "While its architectural merits are debatable, this toilet is thought to be unique in that it's the only one in the new Urinary Authority's area, indeed possibly the whole country, to prominently display the word 'Urinal'. Curiously, it's a word that's fallen from fashion virtually everywhere, yet it tells you the building's purpose in such uncompromising fashion.

"All too often," she added, "listing is restricted to old buildings like Highfields, Moss Hall and Audlem's Georgian gems in Stafford Street. Curiosities like this Urinal by the car park are what the public is really looking for – particularly after a long drive."

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