London Loos Local Groups

London Loos - Local Campaigns

We created and work with five campaign groups across London in the boroughs of Barnet, Haringey, Islington, Merton and Southwark. The following provides, in brief, some of the activities and successes for the groups.

We supported a group of older residents in Haringey to persuade the Council to develop a Public Toilet Strategy. This was done by organising a deputation to the Council, and face-to-face meetings with councillors.
In Merton, More Loos for Merton campaigners persuaded the Council to relaunch an expanded Community Toilet Scheme (CTS) and hire a new to address ‘loo deserts’. Activities included campaigners meeting the Deputy Leader and speaking at Council meetings.
In Islington, we supported campaigners to persuade the Council to publish a map of toilet locations. Together we secured face-to-face meetings with Cabinet Members, were featured more than 10 times in local media, and asked questions at a Council Meeting.
Loos for Barnet have won the support of the Council’s Age Friendly Barnet initiative and local Older People’s Champion.
In Southwark, Loos for Southwark campaigners organised a successful deputation to Cabinet, met with councillors and submitted evidence to a scrutiny review.

The campaigners find being a part of a campaign group fulfilling. Many are campaigning for issues that affect them or their close family or friends.

When asked, over 87% of 24 survey respondents involved in ‘in-person’ activities, said their experiences had given them either ‘slightly more’ (35%) or ‘much more’ (52%) confidence to campaign.

Case study: Julie Johns, More Loos for Merton

More Loos for Merton (MLFM) was founded in November 2022 to campaign for improved public toilet provision in London Borough of Merton. Since that time we have:

identified over 100 local premises which have toilets (either with free access or for customers)
audited over 30 toilet facilities to check their accessibility and spoken to some local business owners regarding their views on Community Toilet Schemes (CTS)
identified sources of information about the location of local public toilets on transport, council and other websites/apps
encouraged participation in the council’s consultation about public toilets in Spring 2023
engaged with other local groups such as Age UK Merton, Merton Centre for Independent Living and Friends of St. Helier to expand our campaign
fed our audit reports into a scrutiny report produced by a local councillor following the consultation
met with the deputy leader of the council and council officials regarding implementation of the recommendation in the scrutiny report and recruitment of a project officer to relaunch Merton’s CTS
supported the council’s petition to TfL to have toilets installed at Morden Underground Station
responded to media enquiries about our campaign
set up a Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/997163071478490

Our campaign would not have got off the ground without Age UK London initially bringing together their local supporters with an interest in this issue. They have been an invaluable source of knowledge and expertise in terms of what is happening in other boroughs and the Greater London Assembly as well as adding credibility to our representations to the council. I have found participating in the campaign very interesting and worthwhile and achieved a sense of satisfaction from feeling that may be able to achieve some positive outcomes from our efforts.