Pubs set for extra cash from toilet scheme

Pubs in Wales will be offered cash to let the public spend a penny as part of a new government scheme.

The Welsh Assembly plan will mean councils can give small businesses a "financial incentive" to allow passers-by to use their facilities.

Pubs are among the businesses that could benefit, although it will down to the discretion of the local authority.

A Welsh Assembly spokesman said the scheme is expected to go live at some point next year.

He also dismissed press reports suggesting businesses offering their toilets would be given rate relief, not cash. "There will be a financial incentive, but not rate relief," he said.

Other reports have suggested participating councils will be given £18,000 to finance the scheme, but the spokesman refused to confirm this figure.

The pub trade gave the initiative a tentative welcome. John Price, secretary of the Licensed Victuallers Association of Wales and licensee of the Bush Hotel in Blaenclydach, Rhondda, said he did not currently allow non-customers to use his toilets.

"The problem is having to keep an eye on everybody," he said.

But he added that the extra money would "make a difference" to many pubs as they continue to struggle.

Rachel Roberts, licensee of the Bryn Tyrch, in Capel Curig, North Wales, said non-customers already use their toilets so she would be "glad of the extra cash" particularly as business rates were going up.

But she added that for a rural location it would be easier to manage, whereas in a town centre it could be "disruptive".

Similar schemes are already operating in areas including Richmond-Upon-Thames and Kilburn in London. The move is part of a wider push by the Department for Communities and Local Government to boost access to public toilets.