[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18072905

A court ruling has cast doubt on whether urinating in public is a nuisance - as long as no-one sees. So is it really ever acceptable?

You are driving along an unfamiliar country road. An urgent dilemma nags at both your bladder and your conscience.

With no public toilets in sight, do you carry on in discomfort? Or do you find somewhere discreet to pull over?

While the cultural aversion to performing basic bodily functions in the open air is widespread, all too often it is tested by immediate physical pressures.

The rights and wrongs of this quandary have been tested in court after a couple in Somerset, John and Cherry Pusey, tried to force their local council to close a lay-by near their home which passing motorists regularly used for open-air "comfort breaks".

However, Lord Justice Ward - sitting with Lords Justice Longmore and Patten at the Court of Appeal - ruled that the urinating drivers' impact was not "cumulatively intolerable" because they were not "obviously visible" from the Pusey's home, according to reports.

But whatever the legal position, not everyone will be convinced that this represents a factor in mitigation.

The spectacle of drunken revellers fouling town centres in the early hours of the weekend is regularly held up as a symptom of societal decline.

There was widespread public anger at student Philip Laing, caught urinating on a Sheffield war memorial in 2009. And the practice can be deemed "disorderly behaviour" in England and Wales, an offence punishable with a fine under the 1986 Public Order Act.

Local authorities in Chester launched a crackdown after fears that well-refreshed revellers were causing irreparable damage to the city's medieval walkways.

Getting "caught short" in the countryside is one thing, necking 20 pints of lager then redistributing it on war memorials and historical buildings is another.

In city centres at weekends, where hundreds of "bladdered" ejected clubbers relieve themselves in the street simultaneously, there's a definite hygiene problem.

So it's a from me.

[MTVN]

I do it quite a lot tbh

[Niamh.]

If you've got to go, you've got to go. Maybe not on memorials and such though

[Shaun]

Might have a slash all over this thread tbh

[Ramsay]

i always do on a night out

[Black Dagger]

Y'all are classy.

[Marsh.]

I don't think it's right just pissing out in the open whenever the need calls like some drunks do on monuments and benches and stuff. But at least trying to be discreet, in some bushes or whatever I think is fine. If you have to go, you have to go.

[lostalex]

It's never acceptable. a 200 pound fine seems appropriate to me.

[Scarlett.]

It's acceptable as long as its out of view imo

[Samuel.]

Don't see the problem if it's out of sight. When landscape gardening, you don't really have a choice.

[Shaun]

I only ever do it in an alley or a bush.

[Doogle]

I do it in places cut off from the main part where everyone is. If I need to pee I will pee.

[Z]

I have a terrible bladder, I need to pee a lot and if I can't immediately get to a toilet I have to go in public. I've peed on the four main streets in my home town

[Jack_]

I've no problem with it so long as you're not pissing on someone (unless they have some sort of fetish), their property or memorials etc.

[Mrluvaluva]

If you have to go, at least be discreet about it. Sometimes you see people hosing down the streets and waving it about like it's something to be proud of. Don't particularly want to see girls crouched in the gutter with their knickers round their ankles either. There's normally an alley way or a large tree to hide behind.

[lostalex]

Boris should be building less bikestands and more publicpottys

[Vicky.]

Meh done it a few times, always somewhere private-ish though..like I wouldnt do it in the middle of a crowded street or anything

I remember I once had to stop my taxi halfway home and get him to wait while I went into a random field for a pee...then promptly fell over on the way back to the car and he made me sit on a plastic sheet all the way home because I was covered in mud

I can technically pee anywhere I want now anyway, at any time of day. I can even ask for a policemans hat to pee in if I chose to

[Marc]

Obviously not on memorials etc. but if I need to go say on a long journey in a car I will. I'm not going to risk getting a bladder infection because I was being 'considerate' to the natural landscape and all that rubbish. Animals do it.

[MTVN]

Those urinals in the streets they have in some cities are genius, should get more of those

[lostalex]

There is a famous colonial American flag that has the picture of a snake and the words "don't piss on me"

[lostalex]

(i might have got the phrasing wrong)

[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by MTVN

Those urinals in the streets they have in some cities are genius, should get more of those

The ones that pop up from nowhere?

Years ago there was one in durham (dunno if its still there now) and it started going up while my mate was walking over the top of it

[Jamie.]

I think it is disgusting. Walking down to McDonalds down the usual back-alley route, and someone is stood there with their doodahs out urinating. It put me of my McDonalds anyway lol

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by Jamie Pugh

I think it is disgusting. Walking down to McDonalds down the usual back-alley route, and someone is stood there with their doodahs out urinating. It put me of my McDonalds anyway lol

you should sue.

[Jamie.]

Originally Posted by lostalex

you should sue.

Still disgusting