Town's toilets in jeopardy.

[badger]

 [downinone]anyway have a good weekend and enjoy the lovely weather we are having

[badger]

 

[Mike Hawkins]

Mike my plan i placed forward to Jane Scott OBE  was as such , I had placed some of it above, but I will explain it again here.
Instead of trying to pass the buck of the costs to the town council , concerning the public toilets , perhaps they would at the wiltshire cabinet Investigate the idea of first of all selling the unused and closed toilet blocks through out the county and place these on the open market , thus raising much needed funds to help the budget cuts we are enduring , part 2 of the plan was to sell all the existing blocks of toilets , thus not needing the interpublic services who maintain these toilet blocks  across the county and instead , place the fixed toilet cabins seen across the country in places they are needed where of course you place your coin in go in do your buisness and leave , once left the automatic system cleans the whole cubicle elimanating any interpublic services needed .
this you will probably not agree with , but it would save thousands of pounds whilst raising millions across the county and then helping our cuts to be less than what they are at present. Jane Scott OBE thought it was a very good idea and one she has said she will take to the cabinet .

Mike,  I would agree with selling off the redundant toilet blocks. Only this week, I saw a report somewhere about a village that has turned theirs into a mini-shop. I thought this was a good idea.

As to selling the current facilities, either way the public whose rates paid for them will now have to pay again one way or another. If they were transferred to the towns, then the town precept would have to rise to pay for maintainence, etc.

If they were transferred to private ownership, my fear would be that the charges made to use them would be uncontrolled.

Personally, the towns may be the better choice in the long run. Councillors are accountable, business people are not.

[badger]

I agree with you Mike , my proposal was not for them to be sold and then kept as public toilets for a private firm , but sold on the open market , IE like the village that turned its into a shop brilliant idea , the one in Grassacres park would be brilliant if that could be turned into a little coffee shop, One reads all the time about toilet blocks being sold and turned into homes etc. my idea was to have those booths in the places where they are needed and funded from sales so safeguarding a public toilet facility , these new ones are self cleaning , you can not get crowds of yobs in them and would help remove some of the Improper use by certain individuals who see these facility as places to take their drugs importune for sexual encounters etc , and by going over to these new toilets would be used by those genuine users , the facility is really for.

[Mike Hawkins]

Thanks Mike.

I can certainly see a need to keep the High Street toilet facilities open, but are those in the Warminster Road car park so essential? I would suspect that these would be used more by passing traffic, whereas the High St ones are used more locally!

Had I been still on the Council and this matter came up for debate, we would probably have been in broad agreement (subject to detail)!!

[badger]

you are quite right Mike , the toilets on the warminster road are not well used , and approx 3-5 minutes walk away from the high street facilities , we then have  a unsed toilet block within Grassacres park which has been closed for over ten years, yet costs money due to vandalisim and other things, these are the main 3 in westbury which do need attention.
The other one is in the cemetary , well I could not see any benefit in selling a toilet block within this area , and is used by many people visiting loved ones graves and , I believe would be very dodgy ground to try and sell this facility off , I would think it may be better to pull it down and replace it with a new walk in cubicle similar to the one I have proposed for our high street. by doing this across the county wiltshire council could reduce their out goings , whilst maintaining a vital facility and yes making money and reducing the cuts being imposed by Westminster.

[Andy]

Was parked in the High Street around 09.00 this morning having a brief break from work (having used the toilets!) when the Interpublic
worked pulled up in his van, shortly followed by 2 Wiltshire Council workers in their own van.

The Interpublic man clearly didn't expect them to be there and, as he was eating something, proceeded to watch the WC (love that acronym!) men take photos of the toilets - inside and outside - and then approach his van to talk to him.

Unfortunately I couldn't hear their conversation, and I certainly hope they didn't expect the loos to already be clean, as he had literally just turned up and they were in the state they usually seem to be first thing in the morning - he does an outstanding job and had they been half an hour later they would have seen so!

Didn't have the time to go and speak to them and encourage them that the toilets shouldn't be closed.