Twyford

Local Loos in Woodley, Wargrave and Twyford will be launched this week to provide shoppers and visitors with the chance to spend a penny without reaching for their wallets.

Four more businesses have signed up to the scheme to provide cleaner, brighter and more convenient toilets to the general public, without any cost to residents or visitors, and will be officially operating from today (September 1).

Residents, shoppers and visitors to Wargrave village centre can use any of the following toilets for free at any of the times listed:

• The Bull Hotel, High Street, Monday to Friday noon to 3pm and 6pm to midnight and noon to midnight at weekends.

• The St George and Dragon, High Street, Monday to Saturday 11am to 11pm and 11am to 10.30pm on Sunday

In Woodley Local Loos will be available at the following locations and at the times listed:

• Costa Coffee, Crockhamwell Road, 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday and 9.30am to 5pm on Sunday

• The Oakwood Centre, Headley Road from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 4pm on Saturday

In Twyford, Sebastian’s Café in London Road has also signed up to the scheme, which has been running successfully in Wokingham Town Centre for the past month. And another Local Loo partner is due to be rolled out in the Twyford area in the next few weeks.

The toilets are cleaner safer, brighter, in better locations and open for longer hours than the old council-run public conveniences – which have been subject to bouts of vandalism in recent years – and they are completely free to use!

Toilets for disabled people, as well as separate male and female cubicles, are available at all the above locations, as well as the Local Loos in Wokingham Town Centre. All the toilets are free to use for the public and there is no expectation that people using them will purchase a product/ service from any of the Local Loo partners.

The council-run public toilets in Wokingham, Wargrave, Woodley and Twyford will all be closed from today (September 1) and so anyone needing to use a toilet while out and about will need to use a Local Loo.

Signs indicating where the Local Loos are located have been posted on the old public conveniences and all Local Loo partners will display a sticker to inform shoppers, residents and visitors to the fact that they are part of the scheme. Full details are also available at www.wokingham.gov.uk/local-loos.

Cllr Simon Weeks, executive member for environment, said: “We have nearly all our Local Loos up and running so I’d urge residents, shoppers and visitors to take advantage of this scheme and use the toilet in any of the cafes, pubs or offices where they see the sticker.

“Not only will the Local Loo scheme improve toilets across the borough in terms of providing cleaner, safer and brighter facilities, it will also mean that residents, shoppers and visitors have access to a toilet for greater lengths of time as many of these businesses are open for much longer than the old council-run public conveniences.

“Also, these much better facilities are completely free for residents and visitors to use as the council has already compensated all the businesses, and there’s no expectation that anyone using the Local Loos will have to purchase something in return.”

Wokingham Borough Council ~ Twyford