Public toilets in Highbury Crescent

• IT’S absolutely vital Islington has good, accessible, public toilets so residents and visitors can take part in all that our fantastic borough has to offer, (It’s out of order! Loos are still shut, January 20).

Work is well under way on action to make sure Islington gets the public toilet network it needs. Over the next two years we will invest more than £1million in good public toilets across Islington, with a further £200,000 of national Changing Places funding, awarded specifically to create better accessible facilities.

We will replace the old automated public toilets in Islington that are now near the end of their working lives. It’s hard to find spare parts for these old toilets when they have a fault, and they are also vulnerable to anti-social behaviour.

The current situation, where old toilets are regularly fixed and then quickly go out of service again, isn’t good enough, and we’re very sorry for the inconvenience it causes. We will replace these old facilities with modern, accessible, reliable, automated, toilets.

Also we are launching a new programme to work with local businesses and local organisations to encourage sign-up to the Toilets4London app, which gives details of toilets in the community that are available for people to use.

This excellent app is really helpful, with more than 50 locations of toilets in Islington, and we and many others personally use it to help plan the day better and stay out and about longer.

Many Islington Council locations – like Islington Town Hall, 222 Upper Street, and libraries – are already included on the app, which is used increasingly widely by people out and about in London. Businesses and other groups can make a real difference to their local community by getting involved.

We would like to thank Age UK for its campaign on this important issue. We will invest in modern public toilets, and work to build a network of toilets in our communities that is available to everyone.

CLLR NURULLAH TURAN
Executive Member for Health & Social Care

CLLR ROULIN KHONDOKER
Executive Member for Equalities, Culture & Inclusion