The state of public toilets in Worthing was highlighted by reader Mary day, when she completed a toilet trek on her mobility scooter in September 2021, you can read about it  here on p26.

Mary's trek caught the attention of the local BBC news, and also the local councillors, many of whom turned out to the BBC News filming of Mary's protest by Worthing Pavilion on the seafront.

Since taking her seat as Worthing's Cabinet Member for the Environment, Cllr Vicki Wells went on her own tour of the public toilets with staff. The toilets, at the Chatsworth Road entrance to the Guildbourne Centre, were identified as being most in need of an overhaul. 

The block of four urinals, three men’s cubicles, five women’s cubicles and one accessible toilet will be stripped out and the site will be comprehensively remodelled having recently gained planning permission.

To maximise the existing space and accommodate a new, specialist Changing Places facility, the design includes six self-contained and individually-accessed cubicles (one male, two female and three unisex), a small block of six urinals, a spacious parent and baby cubicle and an accessible cubicle.

The Changing Places facility, which is being paid for with a £100,000 grant from the Government’s Changing Places Fund, will be a larger, accessible toilet with access equipment to support those with mobility issues.

Cllr Wells said: “The complete overhaul of the High Street car park loos has been a long time coming. Good quality, accessible public toilets in the town centre are vital for residents, shoppers and visitors. These were undoubtedly the public toilets most in need of attention and I am really pleased that work to start their transformation is imminent.

“The addition of the new Changing Places facility is particularly important for members of the community with mobility issues to be able to visit the town centre with confidence.

“Transforming the High Street car park toilets is just our first step in a much-needed programme of improvements of Worthing’s toilets and I’m very grateful to our Council teams for working so hard to design and enable this new facility.”

Work is due to begin this autumn and is expected to take about three months to complete. 

The work has been scheduled to avoid the school summer holidays, when the town centre and seafront have the most visitors.

In the meantime, alternative public toilets will be available at Beach House Park, off Brighton Road, at Marine Parade opposite the Dome cinema and also at Worthing Pier. 

Improving public toilets for residents and visitors was also raised in The Big Listen last summer, during which the Council held conversations with people at sites across Worthing on how they would like to see the town improved.

The next tour that Mary Day undertook, was about the state of the pavements and how they create accessibility issues for people who need wheels to get about.