Urinating in public yes/no ?

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Dave7

Legendary Member
Location
Cheshire
Just reading on local news that a guy in Warrington has been fined for the above crime. Total was approx £300.
No details given so I don't know how brazen he was.
Several Things come to mind.
1. If that was me £300 would equal £150 per inch.
2. Having visited France on many occasions the sight of men peeing at the side of the road seems common place. Mr Google tells me it is "accepted" but not legal and fines can be up to €400+. Different countries/cultures etc .

Just a point on interest really.
 

mustang1

Guru
Location
London, UK
Nah it's not my thing. I find it unacceptable. A few times in NY, not only did I see guys doing a number one, but they went full out with number two. Wth is up with that shxt.
 

jowwy

Can't spell, Can't Punctuate....Sue Me
Just reading on local news that a guy in Warrington has been fined for the above crime. Total was approx £300.
No details given so I don't know how brazen he was.
Several Things come to mind.
1. If that was me £300 would equal £150 per inch.
2. Having visited France on many occasions the sight of men peeing at the side of the road seems common place. Mr Google tells me it is "accepted" but not legal and fines can be up to €400+. Different countries/cultures etc .

Just a point on interest really.
there is an old law that truckers are allowed to pee on the side of the road, as long as its against the wheel of said truck.........
 

Electric_Andy

Heavy Metal Fan
Location
Plymouth
I think it is about context, and very tricky to apply discretion. I've seen mums holding their young child over a drain in the high street to pee in. I'm not sure they would be fined for doing that. I guess it comes down to whether there are reasonable grounds for doing it. e.g. if you're in a built-up area and you;re an adult, you'd be expected to find a toilet. Whereas if it's in a layby or somewhere in the middle of nowhere, I'd hope that some discretion would be used. After all, peeing in a hedge is not really going to cause a huge amount of pollution, or pose a significant health risk, unless hundreds of people are doing it in the same place every day
 

yello

Guest
Hey, I live in rural France :laugh:

It's not a common place sight but it is certainly not rare. Maybe I've become desensitized but I don't really have an issue with it. And of course, I've done it myself often enough when out cycling. I do find a discrete spot though, not that there's anything other around here.

As mentioned upthead, context is everything. Taking a dump in Worthing high street (whatever you think of Worthing) no, not on. But a pee into the hedgerow on the B-whatever to the aptly named Little Piddle, no probs.
 
OP
OP
Dave7

Dave7

Legendary Member
Location
Cheshire
I think it is about context, and very tricky to apply discretion. I've seen mums holding their young child over a drain in the high street to pee in. I'm not sure they would be fined for doing that. I guess it comes down to whether there are reasonable grounds for doing it. e.g. if you're in a built-up area and you;re an adult, you'd be expected to find a toilet. Whereas if it's in a layby or somewhere in the middle of nowhere, I'd hope that some discretion would be used. After all, peeing in a hedge is not really going to cause a huge amount of pollution, or pose a significant health risk, unless hundreds of people are doing it in the same place every day
Finding a public toilet in Warrington is almost impossible.
To our knowledge the only remaining one is in the bus station and will cost you 20p
 

yello

Guest
Yep, true, finding a public toilet is, in some places, a near impossibility. I'm sure both France and the UK are similar in this and local councils etc are strapped for funds, so the cost of keeping (constantly vandalised) public loos open (and clean) means it's not high on the agenda.
 

a.twiddler

Veteran
With public toilets becoming scarcer due to local authority cutbacks over recent decades you can't have it both ways. A bit of local knowledge is a useful thing. There are supermarkets and garages with minimarkets but if you're in a strange town and get the urge your options are limited. The recent publicity given to lack of facilities for truckers suggests that peeing in a layby is a fact of life for many, no matter how much they might dislike having to do it.

The consequences could range from being put on the sex offenders register for exposing yourself in public, via being fined for public nuisance, to nothing at all depending on where you are and the population density. If nobody sees you in the middle of nowhere, it never happened. If you end up on CCTV in some town centre, it's hard to deny.

There's a quote somewhere that one of the joys of being a bloke is that the world is your urinal. Maybe it is, but it pays to be discreet.
 
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