Exclusive:Holly Bruce: I want a public toilet named after me

Most newly-elected MSPs have great plans on how they want to affect change in society. For Ms Bruce, she wants to see feminist town planning rolled out across Scotland - and that means more public toilets.

And she says her dream is to one day have a public toilet named after her.

She hit the headlines last month when she won Glasgow Southside. Not only was she one of the first Greens to ever win a constituency seat in Scotland, but she also took over from former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, who had represented the area since 1999.

Ms Bruce has big plans for her next five years in parliament - and says she knows she will have been successful in making a difference when more public toilets get opened.

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She told The Scotsman that feminist town planning would benefit everyone in society, as it would lead to safer streets and green spaces that are accessible to all.

“We need to embed women and people of marginalised genders in the planning process with feminist infrastructure on the ground,” she said.

“That means things like more street lights, and having playparks that are built for girls.

“Traditionally playparks are built for boys with things like football pitches. There is never the foresight to think of what girls would want.

“One of my favourite interventions that I’ve seen is a circular table with a roof painted in pastel colours for kids to play games in a sheltered space - it is not anything crazy.

“Then we could have lights in playparks in the winter.

“Women and girls are also not considered in transport planning. It is all baked around commuting to work in a capitalist society built for men, rather than women’s everyday experiences.

“And linked to all of that is access to public toilets.”

She said opening more public toilets is a feminist concept, but goes down well across society because it impacts everyone.

She said: “We need to be able to access public toilets for free within areas people actually spend time in, whether that’s town centres, greenspaces, active travel routes or children’s playparks.

“I want to bring in provision for public toilets, open up debate on this in Holyrood and perhaps even look at legislation.”

Ms Bruce did not initially dream of becoming an MSP - she fell into politics “by accident”.

Originally from Fraserburgh, she studied law at Aberdeen University and joined Scottish Labour to elect Jeremy Corbyn as leader.

“I’d never heard a politician speak about socialism and the need for fairer communities like that before,” she said.

A while later she was standing in a bus stop in Shawlands when Labour called her to go out canvassing for them.

She said: “I thought ‘no, I’ve changed my stance on independence’. I was also concerned about the climate emergency and more and more I was seeing a link between that and social equality, so I joined the Greens.”

Ms Bruce then took a job working for former party leader Patrick Harvie and became a councillor for Glasgow in 2022.

As well as working on feminist town planning, she also wants to focus on social justice issues over the next five years.

“Changing the built environment is one thing, but legislation can change behaviours too,” she said.

“I want to see a conversion therapy bill, a human rights bill and a misogyny bill coming forward.

“There will be opposition to it, but I also want to stand up for trans people at all costs. The Greens have been one of the strongest on that in this building, and we will continue to be.”