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Cafe Toilets
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Does a cafe have to provide toilet facilities ?
My local library has a little cafe bar in the corner and sells teas coffees pastries etc.
I asked about a toilet and they told me to go up a stair and thru a corridor and I'd find one.
I did find it but there are no signs so you must ask at the coffee bar counter.
Over the last week this toilet has had an Out Of Order sign on it.
I don't know if it's realy out of order or they just don't want the public to use it.
It looks like it used to be a staff toilet before they made it public.
Any advice appreciated.
My local library has a little cafe bar in the corner and sells teas coffees pastries etc.
I asked about a toilet and they told me to go up a stair and thru a corridor and I'd find one.
I did find it but there are no signs so you must ask at the coffee bar counter.
Over the last week this toilet has had an Out Of Order sign on it.
I don't know if it's realy out of order or they just don't want the public to use it.
It looks like it used to be a staff toilet before they made it public.
Any advice appreciated.
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But I regularly use a tiny cafe, where there is no toilet nor any room for one either.
Can you provide a link to the authoritative source on that?
What about the newsagent shop selling a Mars bar - and saying there must be a staff toilet does not count?
The Prumeister meant shops that sell foods to eat and sit down in the building not your local corner shops that sell chocolate and crisps.
Did he/she really? Well, say that, he/she didn't.
I'd still be interested to learn the authoritative source which means that (implied) every such establishment has to provide toilet facilties. I don't think that is the case, but do not know, well enough, the legislation.
Link?
I find it very difficult to believe. What about fish and chip shops? Kebab shops? Pizza placs? None of them have toilets.
My local smells like one - does that count?
Fish and chip/kebab/pizza shops, unless they have sit-down facilities, are takeaways and are not under the same rules of having to provide a toilet, as far as I am aware.
All the above shops that I know of, that have even a couple of wonky tables, also allow customers to use a toilet on the premises - even if they are a health hazard to use.
One of the other libraries I use is attached to a community centre and you can use that but the main library in town I'd never seen any toilets until I asked at this coffee bar area in the library.
I have an Aldi near me and it has a male femail and disabled toilet.
The disabled is always open but the other two are always locked and when I ask am told they are out of order.
I myself always thought that if food and drink are being sold and there is a sit down area that they would have toilet/hand washing facilities.
The main library I use is very big and the cafe toilet when open is extremely handy especially when people are in the library or cafe with children.
I did speak the other day to one of the librarians who just shrugged her shoulders and walked away.
If it's licensed they do.
The library cafe toilet is still OOO. :rolleyes:
Not just small independents either - I can think of some Subways without toilets...
My friends mother opened a café years ago and she was told she absolutely had to provide customer toilets!!
So it should be in here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1976/57/contents
(though that looks like it's just 'places of entertainment' to me...)
Certainly, back in the day, when I worked on the design of bars/restaurants we HAD to provide toilet facilities to get planning permission and that was a strict number dependent on the size of the location or maximum number of possible patrons at any one time...
You contacted your local authorities Environmental Health and they said that in this case they did not have to. You now have two choices either 1. take that at face value. or 2. contact your local councillor and raise the matter with them
I think there must be at least two qualifications to this :
1. In a department store, not all food areas have their own toilets;
2. Where there must be a toilet, is it for the use of the general public, or can it be "customers only"?
I was searching for an answer to this question after my recent visit to Asda in Hereford the other week,
I visited Asda in the evening, and after shopping I decided I needed to use the toilet, I also have medical conditions (autistic and incontinence) which means that it's more easier for me to use the disabled toilet as they normally have incontinence bins in them, although I can also use a normal toilet cubicle and just dispose of the pad later.
Firstly this Asda in Hereford looks a relatively new Asda, and I was surprised that when I went to the toilets there was no disabled toilet - there was only the mens/men with crutches, womens/women with crutches, and baby change.
I went to open the door and found it was locked, I was quite surprised at this, especially as the store was still open.
I went to security and the guy at the security desk wasn't very helpful, he just said oh yeah we lock them at night and we don't have any key to open them till tomorrow.
I've been in many supermarkets, service stations, etc, and I've never known any of them to lock toilets at night, especially whilst the shops are still open! I know street toilets tend to be locked at night, timed or radar key only due to people doing inappropriate things in them (thank George Michael for that issue >:( ), and then even worse to not even have a key available - what do they do if something goes wrong in the toilets at night like a water leak or electrical fault? Sit there looking at water coming through the door and just say to the emergency services when they arrive oh we can't get in there till the morning 'cos we don't have a key - surely someone must have had a key, and I think the security was just being awkward.
I did also wonder whether this was legal, especially with a supermarket as big as Asda as it is a large food shop, and it does sell various types of food including bakery items some of which are unwrapped, and if no-one has the ability in the shop to wash their hands, or use the toilet in the evening I'd question whether or not it's a hygienic place to shop in the evening, or even at any time because people will have been shopping in the evening with unclean hands and then the next day you could pick something up from there that someone has handled in the evening. Also what do Asda do if someone is taken ill during their shopping, do Asda just let the puke all over the aisles rather than open the toilets up? It's a terrible thought, I have issued a complaint to Asda's head office with regards to this and am still waiting for a response, but in future I'll certainly wont be going to Asda in Hereford until they rectify this situation.
I recently had occasion to use the toilet in the Aldi store. On attempting to open the door I discovered that it was locked. I then spoke to one of the girls on the checkouts and found that, in order to use the toilet, you have to ask one of the till staff to unlock it! All the till positions have a remote release switch, apparently, which, when activated, unlocks the toilet. On my request this was activated and I was then able to open the door and use it.
Whether this is the set-up in all Aldi stores which have a toilet in-store I do not know, but it's certainly the case in the store near me.
The Burger King now has a keypad number entry system and the code is on your receipt. I suppose this is to stop people from just wandering in off the street to use the facilities.
Takeaways don't have to provide toilets, however if they have seating and eat in facility then they do.