Published: 17:25, 19 August 2026

Public toilets on Parker’s Piece in Cambridge have reopened after Labour, weakened by May’s election losses, struck a minority administration deal with Liberal Democrats demanding the move.

The toilets opened on Friday (14 August), following the Quayside facilities, which were brought back into use earlier in the summer.

The move comes after a deal between the Cambridge City Council’s Labour and Liberal Democrat groups after May’s local elections, which saw the former party install the council leader.

Opposition group deputy leader Cllr Katie Porrer said: “For most people, amenities like public toilets are what their local council should be all about.

“Offering them is the mark of a civilised city. Cambridge benefits from its many visitors and it should provide properly for them as well as its own residents – thinking especially of those who need them more for no fault of their own. The closures should never have happened.”

There were protests when the city council chose to close public toilets due to financial pressures. Labour then defended closing the loos by claiming they were barely used.

However, figures later obtained by the Lib Dems showed usage collapsed only after the previous 20p coin-operated entry system became outdated – falling from 27,815 visits in 2016–17 to 4,160 before closure.

Cllr Porrer argued the drop reflected the shift to contactless payments rather than a lack of demand, saying historic figures showed strong underlying use that had not simply disappeared.

The reopened toilets currently do not require a coin to access, and a decision will be made at a later date on future charging. If that happened, it would most likely be by contactless card.

Last month, Cllr Martin Smart (Lab, King’s Hedges), cabinet member for nature, open spaces and city services said Labour had closed the toilets “in good faith” and “there were, and continue to be, pressures” on finances “that need careful management”.

He told the cabinet meeting: “Employing extra cleaning staff on a different shift can be challenging to do and in the most effective way but we’ll do our best in that regard.

“We aim to get on with this work as soon as possible and will pursue that goal.”

Cllr Porrer said: “It was a truly bad sense of priorities to look there first to make savings, especially having asked the public, and then ignoring their answer. Low usage was never an adequate reason for closing them.

“Visits were indeed only 4,000 in the last year they were open, but this was 28,000 before the pandemic, when people more commonly carried coins.

“Human needs like that don’t just change overnight. It was ridiculous that no one considered the reason for the reduced usage and adapted positively to changing times.

“So this is a great example of the ballot box getting what people wanted and we’re delighted that this happened through us. We appreciate Labour eventually bowing to the public’s wishes.”

She added: “There is still much work to be done before the city offers what it should – and the condition of the atrocious toilets on Jesus Green must be next on the council’s agenda.”