Shopping centre in Wales takes the crown for the best loos in the UK

A shopping centre in Wales – St David’s Dewi Sant in Cardiff – has been judged to have the best public ‘loos’ in the UK as winners of this year’s Loo of the Year Awards.

Sixteen companies and individuals received trophies at the annual awards which took place on 14 January at the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull.  

More than 1,500 businesses from across the UK entered the annual awards to have their ‘away-from home’ washrooms and toilet facilities judged by a team of independent inspectors.  

Run by businesswoman Becky Wall BEM and her husband Charles Wall, the scheme is now in its 38th year of celebrating excellence when it comes to washroom facilities we all need to use. 

“This year we had so many new venues enter the awards and put their washrooms up for scrutiny and many welcomed feedback for further improvement. It’s been a real privilege for our inspectors to travel the country and support businesses and organisations to improve their washroom facilities and toilets which, after all, is part of great customer service and very important for the wellbeing of staff,” Becky said. 

St David’s Dewi Sant is a shopping centre which was part of a huge project to redevelop an underused area in Cardiff at its southern end. Its facilities are run by a small team who work for Mitie, a facilities management and professional services company. The centre took the national title from all 1,500 entries. The team won because they scored the highest of all entrants across the 101 criteria the independent inspectors use when assessing facilties. 

Mathew West, Cleaning and Environmental Manager, collected the trophy on behalf of his team.  

“We’re overwhelmed,” he said. “We’re a small team and we take great pride in our work and we are thrilled to win this trophy in such prestigious company. We believe taking the time to ensure our toilet facilities are outstanding is part of excellent customer service and means many people are confident to keep coming back to shop in the centre. Our footfall across the year is around 30 million so we are kept very busy.” 

Another winner from Wales was the Rees family, who were presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award.  

The family run Pencelli Castle Caravan & Camping Park in Pencelli, in the Brecon Beacons. Gerwyn Rees and his sons Craig and Morgan now run the site, which was established in the 1990s almost by accident by Gerwyn and his late wife, Liz Rees. 

Having entered the Loo of the Year Awards over many years, the family said they were completely taken aback by the win, which proved to be an emotional moment. 

Gerwyn said: “We can’t believe this has happened and we’re deeply grateful and honoured to be recognised in this way. We have farmed this land for many years and my aunt used to say that we should set up a caravan and camping site as the location was perfect. One day we put out a handmade sign on the road as a joke, as she was arriving later that day. As I was hammering it in, two lads stopped and asked ‘how much for the night to stay?’. 

“I had no clue so I just said ‘50p?’ and they said ‘great’. That was it. We started out like that and now we have a thriving business which my wife and I built together. When she sadly passed away Craig and Morgan made the decision to work with me to further build the business and here we are.  

“We do all we can to provide excellent facilities and we felt independent scrutiny from the team to the Loo Of The Year Awards was a fantastic opportunity and we’ve entered across several years. We never even considered that we’d be recipients of this amazing life-time achievement award.” 

Central to The Loo of the Year awards, sponsored by Tork, is a grading scheme where entrants agree to receive an unannounced visit from an inspector and each washroom is judged upon 101 criteria which include cleanliness, décor, signage, accessibility and customer care. In 2025, inspectors visited more than 1,500 businesses including pubs; shopping centres; hotels; caravan and camping sites, motorway service stations, public toilets and companies with staff facilities. 

Each premises was graded with a rise in the number of businesses getting the highest grading of ‘diamond’ from 3.5 per cent to 5.8 per cent. The most common grading is platinum with 52.4 per cent of entries achieving this grading.  

Stuart Hands, Commercial Development Manager for Tork, said: “Congratulations to all the winners of the Loo of the Year Awards! It was fantastic to celebrate them all in Birmingham. We are incredibly proud to be the headline sponsors and support excellence in hygiene standards. The winners have truly set a high bar with their outstanding facilities.”  

The Loo of the Year Awards are sponsored by TORK with additional sponsorship provided by P-Wave and entries open for the 2026 inspection and awards process on Monday March 2 this year. Anyone can nominate a business or organisation for independent inspection, the company then covers the cost of an unannounced inspection and will then receive a grading which they can display (as with food hygiene gradings). The annual day of celebration is open to all entrants to attend when the ‘best of the best’ will be announced. For more information visit https://www.loo.co.uk.