Examination of Witnesses (Questions 32-39)
MR TONY
ANDERSON AND
MR PETER
HAMPSON
2 JUNE 2008
Q32 Chair: Again, could you say who you
are and which organisation you represent?
Mr Anderson: My name is Tony Anderson.
I am Chair of the Guild of Registered Tourist Guides, which includes
the Blue Badge Guides that work around London and other areas
of the country and also those Green Badge Guides who guide also
in cities, do walking tours and so on.
Mr Hampson: My name is Peter Hampson.
I am the Director of the British Resorts and Destinations Association.
If I may, could I leave a magazine which has all the membership
lists and maps showing where we cover?
Q33 Chair: Absolutely. If we could
start where we stopped in the previous session which is about
tourism and toilets and your view about how hard it is for tourists
to find public toilets, how much public toilets matter and whether
they influence tourists' choice of destination?
Mr Anderson: Going backwards in
your questions, yes, they matter very much indeed. We have people
who, for example, arrive in London after a two, three-hour coach
ride and before they even start to think how about how wonderful
this city is, about the excellent sights they are seeing that
they probably waited years to see, the first thing they want to
do is to be comfortable. The first thing they need to do therefore
is to use the toilet and probably also to get something to drink
as well, but it is the toilet that is the important thing. If
you arrive, for example, here in Parliament Square before ten
o'clock in the morning it is almost impossible to find anywhere
where you can do that.
Q34 John Cummings: Why do you mention
ten o'clock in the morning?
Mr Anderson: Because that is the
time that the toilets open around here.
Emily Thornberry: Where are the
toilets around here?
Q35 Chair: Obviously you know where
they are in the building!
Mr Anderson: I rest my case. There
are some down by Westminster pier, there are other ones just on
the other side beside Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre and
there are some also underneath the road by Parliament Street.
Q36 Chair: They do not open until
ten o'clock?
Mr Anderson: They do not open
until ten o'clock.
Q37 Chair: When do they shut?
Mr Anderson: They shut, I think,
at five o'clock in the evening.
Q38 Emily Thornberry: How big are
there? If you have a whole coach load of people.
Mr Anderson: If you have a whole
coach load, first of all, you have the issue of coach parking
in Parliament Square which is an issue, in Tothill Street—
Q39 Chair: It is not one that we
want to go into.
Mr Anderson: Okay. It is difficult.
If I might just pursue that point, the other issue with the toilets
around here is that they charge and it is 50p to use those. I
notice you were talking about that with your previous evidence.
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