the facilities, ensuring that toilet paper, soap, paper towels, and other necessary items are kept stocked. Public toilets need both periodic maintenance and emergency cleaning. Volunteer-managed facilities may also be an option in some cases. There are now durable options for restroom stall materials such as solid plastic that were designed to help fight vandalism. Solid plastic allows for scratches to be less noticeable due to the solid color throughout the product compared to powder coated steel. Powder coated steel chips easily leading to obvious damage compared solid plastic. Solid plastic is also an easier to clean and maintain option for public restrooms with high traffic volumes. Costs and economics User fees Toilets that require the user to pay may be street furniture or be inside a building, e.g. a shopping mall, department store, or railway station. The reason for charging money is usually for the maintenance of the equipment. Paying to use a toilet can be traced back almost 2000 years, to the first century AD. The payment may be taken by a bathroom attendant, or by a coin-operated turnstile or cubicle door (see John Nevil Maskelyne, who invented a doorlock requiring the insertion of a penny coin, hence the euphemism to "spend a penny".) The first pay toilet in the United States was installed in 1910 in Terre Haute, Indiana. Privatization and closures In some places, the provision of public toilet facilities is under great pressure. One response by public authorities is to close the buildings, often citing criminal activity. The United Kingdom government austerity programme has led to major council cut-backs to public toilet provision, with knock-on effects on the public realm as a whole. Some of the buildings, particularly the underground ones, are sold and used for other purposes, e.g. as a bar. Another response is to privatise the toilets, so that a public good is provided by a contractor, just as private prisons are. The toilets may fall under the category of privately owned public space - anyone can use them, but the land ultimately belongs to the corporation in question. When toilets that have been privatised are improperly run, or closed, there may be calls to take them back into the control of the public authority, as with Westminster Council in central London - one of the wealthiest places in the world, where members of the public are reduced to urinating in the parks