Illegal not to provide fresh tap water in public places?

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Called at Strensham Services (Moto) on the M5 on the way home last Sunday. Surprised and annoyed to find that in the men's washroom both hot and cold taps are giving hot water. I see this as a crude attempt to inflate profits by forcing customers to buy bottled water. I also think it might be illegal - am I right?
 
Called at Strensham Services (Moto) on the M5 on the way home last Sunday. Surprised and annoyed to find that in the men's washroom both hot and cold taps are giving hot water. I see this as a crude attempt to inflate profits by forcing customers to buy bottled water. I also think it might be illegal - am I right?

it is illegal in spain and the states but not the uk. :(
 
I thought that restaurants were obliged to provide tap water if you were eating there.

One I know will not, but a friend told me he thought that they were not required to provide tap water.

Tony
 
we just had a social club round here warned by the inspectors for not supplying hot water to the basins in the men toilets.
 
At Strensham services both the hot and the cold taps are giving hot water, all round the washroom.
 
There is an all you can eat chinese round here, they won't give tap water, you can only buy mineral water bottled from them.

Haven't been in the toilets though.

But would you want to drink the water out of the taps in a public toilet?
I know I wouldn't.

Would just want to wash my hands and go.
 
Drink tap water in a public toilet? Why ever not?
If the plumber did his job right it should be safe, shouldn't it? The only thing nicer than a glass of fresh British tap water is a glass of fresh Copper Dragon Golden Pippin ale from Skipton.

I once told off the manager at a Brewer's Fayre pub because we asked for a glass of tap water for our son and got a tepid glass of something rank and stale tasting, with a lump of grey scum floating in it.

It tasted like hot water cooled down.
 
Water to handbasins is not required to be potable!

Indeed in places like motorway service stations it should have a notice saying that it is NOT potable!

I have boycoted the local restaurant where they will not give us tapwater! Thats costing them about £120 p.a. it is really worth it to them?

I think I may up the anti and stick a notice on their door pointing out the folley of their ways! But I really would like to know for sure if its illegal as well as stupid.

Tony
 
Surprised and annoyed to find that in the men's washroom both hot and cold taps are giving hot water. I see this as a crude attempt to inflate profits by forcing customers to buy bottled water. I also think it might be illegal - am I right?

Don't think so. They've probably installed thermostatic mixing valves & spray taps because they do have a duty of care to prevent disabled/very young customers scalding themselves.


Drink tap water in a public toilet? Why ever not?

It is not necessarily potable. It could quite possibly be from a minging water storage tank. In many modern installations, it is 'grey water', recycled rain water.

Besides that, the taps are used by people washing their hands after using the toilets; look up 'threadworms' on Wikipedia. You don't drink water from a wash hand basin, ever.

I have boycoted the local restaurant where they will not give us tapwater! Thats costing them about £120 p.a. it is really worth it to them?

Restaurants that have a licence to serve alcohol are obliged to provide free tap water to customers, it is in the terms & conditions of the licence, I believe (that was in a letter to the papers after a recent such incident got some publicity). If they won't, just geta bottle of mineral water. Then deduct the cost from the bill and the discretionary service charge that most of them stick on. Invite them to sue you.

Restaurants and bars that don't have hot water in the WCs are just minging. The staff are serving your food, so where do they wash their hands when they've used the toilet? In reality many of them don't.
 
I do agree with you about staff hygiene in restaurants - if you want to know how much they care just check out the toilets.

I will only drink tap water if it's bursting out with mains pressure and runs ground cold after a few seconds. Anything else, I won't touch. I've seldom had problems, but there again I'm probaly accustomed as I've spent lots of time trogging on foot or MTB around mountains in Britain and Europe drinking out of streams, as well as countless trips to Africa. The only time I had a real problem from water was when I filled my bottle from a public trough below a village in the Sierra Nevada - a stupid mistake, especially as the water was somewhat cloudy!

The major source of trouble for me has always been hotel food, either the buffets where yesterday's food has been left lying around all night then reheated to bain marie warm, or from ice cream, which nearly killed me in Pakistan once.
 

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