Plans to bring in a toilet tax – a 50p charge – to use five of Brighton’s busiest public toilets along the seafront have been criticised by the Conservatives.
The budget proposal came under fire in a town hall debate last week, with councillors and officials warned that the fee would hit hardest those in greatest need.
And the council’s own “equality impact assessment” said: “It may have a disproportionate impact on disabled people, children, older people, homeless people and general accessibility.”
Now, the Conservative group leader on Brighton and Hove City Council, Alistair McNair, and Councillor Anne Meadows, who speaks on finance for the party, have voiced their concerns.
Councillor McNair and Councillor Meadows said: “The Conservative group is shocked but not surprised that Labour wants to introduce charges to high footfall public toilets. They are clobbering residents left, right and centre.
“Just when shops and businesses are really struggling with national insurance rises, a cost of living crisis and exorbitant car parking increases, Labour brings in a charge that will hit shoppers but, more importantly in this case, the residents, the disabled, those with poor health and families, which will affect how they live their daily lives.
“It might only be 50p to start with but it will quickly go up like every other tax and charge in this city.
“It’s one more thing for people to think about. And one more thing to put people off coming here.
“In addition, the administration of this charge will cost more than 50p so it will not bring in extra funding as staff costs will far exceed the outlay of the costs of implementing it.
“The Labour council’s own equality impact assessment says it will affect the community as a whole and especially disabled people, children, older people and homeless people – all the people you’d think Labour would care about and that councils should be protecting first and foremost.”
The council’s draft budget said that the charge would be brought in at five toilets – Dalton’s Bastion, the Colonnade, Shelter Hall and the West Pier Arches, in Brighton and King’s Esplanade, in Hove.
The draft budget said that the charges should raise about £70,000 although it was unclear how much the council would have to spend on barriers, payment systems, admin and subsequent maintenance.
Labour councillor Jacob Taylor told the council’s Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee last Thursday (19 February) that it was a modest proposal limited to “the really high-volume city centre toilets” visited by many tourists as well as residents.
The revenue that flowed from the toilet tax would, he said, be used to fund capital costs – and the council has included £1 million in the budget for renovating and refurbishing public toilets.
Councillor Taylor, the deputy leader of the council, said that Labour had reopened and refurbished 13 public toilets since taking office in May 2023 after public toilets became a key issue during the local election campaign.
Some concerns have been expressed about Changing Places toilets – accessible toilets specially equipped for people with disabilities to include hoists and adult-sized changing benches.
Several were part-funded with hundreds of thousands of pounds from the government including at Dalton’s Bastion and the Colonnade.
It is not clear whether users would be covered by charges or be exempt from them but some disability groups have questioned how charges could be considered equitable or acceptable given the council’s Accessible City Strategy.
The meeting last week was told that the overall business case had not yet been drawn up although the equality impact assessment was dated last November. No public consultation has taken place.
A decision is due at the annual budget council meeting on Thursday 26 February which is due to start at 4.30pm at Hove Town Hall. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast.
As a Labour member I see this charge as totally wrong. 50 pence is a lot of money to use a service that should be free due to the fact that everyone has to on a regular basis use a Toilet.
Public Toilets are in place so as to avoid individuals indiscriminately choosing to pass their waste products in a Public place. In my opinion in a civilised society they are a must to be free at the point of use.!
Shame on any Council that thinks otherwise!!!
Should be affordable. Free for those on universal credit. 20p max for locals. 1 quid for non Brighton people
How on earth would that work? Imagine it – a queue of people each having their entitlement to pay (or not) checked by a council employee. Or maybe they’ll be an app – just upload a copy of a recent utility bill, a photo of your driving licence, then proof of benefit entitlement, then enter your card details, approve the purchase on your banking app, get the access code by text, enter it on the keyboard, and the cubicle door opens. All to go for a pee!
It would be far more efficient if all these things were paid for out of general taxation rather than paying as you go (literally!) which requires extra admin, infrastructure and cost to collect.
That’s not affordable though
RADAR keys would be my first thought.
They shouldn’t be ‘affordable’ ~ they should be FREE.
You don’t attract visitors to the city and especially the seafront by charging them to have a piss.
Visitors SPEND money that fuels the cities economy.
They can easily go elsewhere !
A tourist levy makes the most sense to me here, part of the income generated from that could go towards maintaining these important infrastructures. Can’t be done until devolved powers are given, at least, that’s the most viable path. £1 on overnight stays, generates something around £6-11 million, more than enough to cover the toilet provision, with plenty left over to cover things like getting on top of potholes, waste collection, green development, and public spaces.
A tourist tax makes a lot more sense than this insane plan to raise (in overall budget terms) the equivalent of some small change down the back of a sofa by making people spend 50p to spend a penny!
…however, as I said, we can’t technically do a tourist tax just yet. Not until devolution.
Benjamin raises a fair point about looking at a tourist levy as a longer-term solution. In a city like Brighton and Hove, where millions of visitors use public facilities each year, it’s reasonable to ask whether the cost of maintaining seafront toilets should fall primarily on residents.
A small overnight visitor charge — as used in cities across Europe — could spread the cost more fairly and generate significantly more than the proposed £70,000 from toilet charges alone. That kind of revenue could help fund public toilets, street cleaning, potholes and other infrastructure without introducing pay barriers for basic services.
However, as Benjamin notes, councils currently don’t have clear powers to introduce a tourist levy without national government approval. So while it may be a better structural solution, it’s not something that can be implemented immediately.
In the meantime, charging 50p per use risks discouraging people from using facilities and disproportionately affecting disabled people, older residents and those on low incomes — concerns already highlighted in the council’s own assessment. Public toilets are not a luxury; they’re essential infrastructure in a busy, inclusive city.
If the aim is to fund improvements, the question is whether a narrow “pay per use” model is the fairest and most cost-effective way to do it — especially once installation, staffing and maintenance costs are factored in.
A broader funding mechanism, like a visitor levy if powers are granted, may ultimately prove more equitable and sustainable than charging people at the cubicle door
I can only assume that this is a bit of kite-flying by the Administration that they will drop in order to prove that they “listened to the community”. On any other level, it is utterly insane.
It is clearly discriminatory and what ridiculous lengths to go to in order to save £70K – small change in the context of the Council budget.
Will we need 50p in cash or will be able to go contactless (so to speak)?