Plymouth City Council has sparked outrage after opening toilets in the Council House as gender neutral – but the council have ignored government guidance and left the existing urinals in place.
The toilets, which serve the press and media gallery on the top floor of the Council House, include a single cubicle next to a urinal. Signs on the door show silhouettes of men and women.
Besides the poor condition of the toilets, residents watching the council meeting expressed outrage at the new toilets.
One female resident attending Monday's council meeting told Plymouth Plus:
"I was shocked to walk into the council's grim upstairs toilets and see a urinal in front of me.
"Urinals are for men. Men hardly want to use a urinal in view of a woman – and women certainly don't want to come face-to-face a urinating man. This is disgusting."
A gender-neutral toilet is designed to serve anyone, regardless of their gender. However, Plymouth City Council's sticking-plaster approach amounts to simply adding gender neutral signs to their existing toilets for men and women. This means that women exiting the cubicle could come face-to-face with a man using the urinal.
Last October, Approved Document T of the Building Regulations came into force for non-domestic buildings. While gender neutral toilets can still be provided in certain circumstances, they must be fully enclosed. The guidance explicitly states that "urinals should only be provided in male single-sex toilets". Plymouth City Council's approach is at odds with this.
In June, the council passed a motion on Trans+ and Intersex Human Rights which made reference to gender-neutral toilets. The motion was proposed by Cllr Dylan Tippetts (Independent, Compton) and heavily amended by Cllr Chris Penberthy (Labour, St Peter and the Waterfront).
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