A Summary of recent BTA activities

The range of activities undertaken by the BTA is largely determined by the amount of income generated through membership subscriptions, surveys and consultations.

In 2018 – 2019 our activities includes:

Membership

Communication with all our members, whether individual or by company – and between all categories of toilet providers, suppliers and users. We are pleased to hear from any of our members on issues relating to “away from home” toilets regarding their provision and internal structure.

Our new website should shortly allow us to feature more products and services as the nature of our industry changes.

The BTA is keen to welcome membership from anyone involved in providing, supplying or the daily running of these essential facilities – information on how to join us is contained on our Membership page.

Surveys and Consultations

Over the last twelve months we have been engaged by and completed works for the following organisations

Weymouth County Council
Lyme Regis County Council
Carmarthen Cunty Council
Ceredigion County Council
Swansea District Council
Northumberland County Council
East Lindsey Council
North East Lincolnshire Council
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council
Belfast City Council

Muscular Dystrophy
Pamis
National Federation for the Blind
Crohn’s and Colitis

Committees and Working Groups

British Standards Institute (BSI)
British Cleaning Council (BCC)
Changing Places Charter Group
Use our Loos Working group
NFB Working Group
WISHNI Steering Group
The Toilet Consortium working Group
PHA (Wales) 2017 Advisory Group

Seminars/Exhibitions/Conferences

National and Regional

• 2019 Conference – National Federation for the Blind
• 2019 Conference – Edinburugh
• 2019 Cleaning Show -Excel London
• 2018 Cleaning Show – Manchester
• 2017 Cleaning Show – Excel London
• 2017 Conference – Ageing Well in Wales, Cardiff
• 2016 Cleaning Show – Manchester
• 2016 ISSA – Amsterdam
• 2015 BTA Conference & AGM
• 2015 BCC Conference, London
• 2015 ATCM Conference and Exhibition – Manchester
• 2015 Cleaning Expo Scotland – SECC
• 2015 PSE Conference – Coventry
• 2015 Excel London – Cleaning Show
• 2014 BTA Conference & AGM
• 2014 BCC Conference
• 2014 ISSA Amsterdam
• 2014 The Older Persons Conference for Wales
• 2014 Primary Care Conference NEC
• 2014 National Old Age Pensioners Association of Wales Annual Conference
• 2013 BTA Conference and AGM
• 2013 Cleaning Show
• 2013 BCC Cleaning Conference
• 2012 ISSA Interclean Conference Amsterdam
• 2012 BTA Conference and AGM
• 2012 BCC Cleaning Conference
• 2011 BTA Conference and AGM
• 2010 World Toilet Summit Philadelphia
• 2010 Pro Clean Exhibition Dublin
• 2010 BTA Conference and AGM
• 2009 Dry Toilet Conference
• 2009 BTA Conference and AGM
• 2009 Cleaning Show – London
• 2009 Encams Cleaner Safer Greener Network Conference
• 2008 World Toilet Summit – held in USA
• 2008 BTA Conference and Annual Members’ Meeting
• 2007 BTA Conference and Annual Members’ Meeting
• 2007 World Toilet Summit – held in Delhi
• 2006 World Toilet Summit – held in Moscow
• 2005 World Toilet Summit – held in Belfast
• 2005 Cleaning Show – Birmingham
• 2004 Clean Expo – Sheffield
• 2004 World Toilet Summit – Beijing

Legislative Issues

September 2018 saw the chancellor Phillip Hammond announcing in his budget the historic abolition of Non Domestic Rates (NDR) for all public toilets in England and Wales. The leveying of these charges on public conveniences has been a continuous source of irritation for the BTA and we have argued and fought for many years to help bring about the removal of these charges.

Of course, like any new legislation it is going to take some considerable time to get these changes adoped and correctly apportioned – but we are support councils and private poviders to help to smooth the inception and transition.

BTA has been mentioned several times in both the Houses of Parliament and the Lords within debates on a range of issues from Health – the Well-being of Older Persons – Families and Tourism. Unfortunately, little action or further discussion has been forthcoming and a political champion for toilets has yet to emerge.

The BTA is keen and willing to liaise with representatives from Westminster, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast and Brussels.

At present we are working with the Older Persons Commissioner for Wales and her officers in their policy and Well-Being administrations. The BTA assisted in their recent published report.

We are subsequently keen to become involved in the current drive to get councils in Wales to  adopt legal responsibilities for the provision of more public toilets throughout the country.

British & European Standards

Working with BSI on the update of BS6465 Parts 1-4 and advising on the revision of BS8300 for Accessible units. Then advising on existing and developing new standards which includes our work with Muscular Dystrophy, Pamis and the Changing Places Charter Group to increase the overall provision of Changing Places Toilets throughout the UK.

Information Services

Communicating information and direction on new and existing Products and Service suppliers.
Answering members, commercial companies and the general public a  wide range of questions and queries regarding all aspects of regulations, provision and future development.

The Changing Places Toilet Map project has greatly enhanced the public’s quest for finding a decent clean – open – facility as the map will contain/identify all recorded sites and then give a detailed Information Profile Sheet. This will clearly show all the internal facilities offered along with opening times and adjacent amenities. A Trip Planner and Favourites feature  will also allow travellers to plan their journeys and regular stops in advance, visit other amenities en-route and avoid the disappointment of wasted journeys or time consuming detours. We also hope to alleviate and help prevent distress for everyone suffering with Bladder or Bowel conditions who require toilet facilities on an urgent basis.

A further development is currently underway to provide an extended service to all users

Training 

The BTA has access to a range of Training Modules aimed at improving the levels of cleaning and hygiene within all toilets.
The modules can be tailored towards (1) Cleaning Operatives (2) Supervisors (3) Managers/Owners
Courses will be delivered by a professional trainer and BTA management
Each Module will have Certification Standard applied.

Consultancy Services

The BTA carries out a number of consultations each year, which include:
Detailed Reporting  – on all toilet facilities and their contents/cleaning
Design, Specification and Maintenance
Current & Future Provision
Change of Purpose, Change of Use and Change of Operation

Over the last twelve months we have been engaged with councils on delivering Future Toilet Provision Strategies for their realms. This includes elements such as Charging, Kiosks, Digital Advertising, Composting Toilets for Parks and the inception of various Community Toilet (CTS) and Use our Loo’s (UoL) schemes.

A large part of our current work is helping councils to design out anti-social beheaviour and to address & tackle the spiriling rise in significant drug abuse and misuse in public facilities.

Market/Consumer Research

User and Supplier/Product data
We have been working/liaising with organisations who are developing new ideas and concepts for the provision of toilets. These include the KOTO who are bidding for the contract to support the next Olympic games and wanted to understand the relationship of toilets within the overall Olympic requirement, and the Private Hire and Taxi drivers Association who have some 32,000 drivers across the UK  many of whom are severely struggling to find/stop at public facilities during working hours and over longer journeys.

Publications

Guides, Manuals and Facts Sheets
Colleagues and fiends have been working with the Haulage Industry and they have produced a range of very informative NEWSLETTERS highlighting the plight of Truckers trying to find good clean toilets on their journeys. Some copies of these newsletters can be found on our Truckers Toilets Page.

We have an extremely useful Problem Reduction Guide for everyone involved in running or operating public facilities. Produced in conjunction with the wide range of individuals along with Staffordshire and Hertfordshire Constabulary’s.

We are working on the production of a new Best Practice Guide. This journal will guide all providers towards the standards expected within a range of toilet environments. It will potentially cover everything from Sanitary-ware to Alarms, Floors to High level Cleaning, Bins to Baby-Change and most importantly cover the correct provision within Accessible facilities.

Publicity/Promotion

We welcome every opportunity to draw down Media Activity and Publicity Material highlighting issues around publicly accessible toilets. In particular Radio & TV opportunities are sought and used to expound the company’s campaign message to wider and wider audiences. We will use every opportunity offered to stop the decline in available public facilities.

To date the Director has over one hundred and thirty six radio interviews from Dawn 2 Dusk and taken part in a range of debates speaking about everything from; the introduction of Charging to Drugs and anti-social beheaviour to lack of decent provision. He recently was invited and took part in the Radio 4 series with the comedian Katy Brand “The Origin of Stuff” looking at the whole history of toilets and examining modern needs and provision.

Award Schemes

The BTA Innovation Awards are currently under review and expected to relaunch in 2020