Scotland: National Rural Network
Connecting Rural Scotland - Promoting Rural Growth

Having checked out Norette's link to the BBC website on the subject of Poo Loos in the Cairngorms, I had to smile!

In the space of a few days I have discussed this sensitive topic amongst colleagues at meetings as diverse as Local Access Forums where the issue is serious and affects animal and human health. At the City Farms and Gardens and Allotments Conference many of us shared and discussed issues around the need for eco loos at allotments which were usually unserviced.  

You know when you hear a word for the first time? It rolls about your brain repeating itself, then suddenly you hear other people using it again and again. Then you feel quite smug because . . . you now know what it means after you bothered to look it up and you now include it in your own vocabulary! Well, eco loos are a bit like that for me just now.

Since being introduced to the concept a few weeks ago, because it is one of our Forth Valley & Lomond LEADER projects, I now find myself asking unsuspecting people what they know about eco loos and "where can you find the best models, how did you get on with planning and SEPA etc"? You would be surprised at how many know so very little, but, like me, want to know more.   

Whether you are shopping in Buchanan Street or walking up Ben Lomond the call of nature is common to all. Since the new access laws, it cannot be denied, that with an ever increasing number of folk concentrated on finite popular outdoor spaces, this can result in, what SEPA would describe as  "point source pollution"!  

Responsible dog owners know what to do, cats know what to do and so do dyed in the wool responsible access takers who always carry with them a little trowel.

We don't want to despoil or polute our beautiful landscape with public loos half way up Ben Lomond. However, given the increasing numbers of visitors now accessing and putting pressure on previously remote areas, perhaps we need a different approach. The kind of visitor we are now getting in such vast numbers to pressure points, is not likely to be persuaded to bring an emergency trowel with them never mind dig a hole, but an eco loo, they might just cope with. 

Nor do we don't want to litter the landscape with the ubiquitous, male and female, pebble dash type edifices, so often suffered by otherwise attractive villages. I can, though, visualise little stone built, heather thatched, unisex, dunnies or eco loos nestling discreetly in corries and blending with their surroundings like the climber's bothies, although I know even these have been under threat from health and safety types! Circular cabins built with vertical logs which blend into and enhance the forests demonstrating that man can blend with nature in more ways than one!  

That's the outside sorted then. What about the actual workings? Who out there knows a thing or two about sustainable, efficient eco loos that can get past Planning, SEPA and the likes? Please write in and share any expertise you have on eco loos.