Cheshire East Council (CEC) has confirmed that it costs £34,000 a year to operate the public convenience in Alderley Edge.
The automatic public toilet at South Street car park was used a total of 3201 times during 2012, which means the cost per use to local taxpayers is a staggering £10.62.
Members of the public pay 20p to use the public convenience so a total of £640.20 was generated last year which goes to the Council.
Last week I revealed that CEC are looking to transfer responsibility for the pay-per-use toilet at South Street car park to the Parish Council.
Should Alderley Edge Parish Council decide not to run the facility then CEC will close the toilet on 31st March 2015.
Councillor David Topping, Cabinet member in charge of the environment, said: "Cheshire East Council is committed to empowering communities and providing opportunities for the local delivery of services. As you may be aware, this has included proposals to transfer certain facilities and assets into the direct ownership and control of Town and Parish Councils.
"As the provision of Public Conveniences is a discretionary and localised service, they have been part of a range of services offered to Town and Parish Councils. Active discussions have been ongoing to facilitate this with some Town and Parish Councils choosing to undertake their operation, whilst others have declined.
"It costs Cheshire East Council approximately £34,000 per year to operate the public convenience in Alderley Edge.
"Based on last year's usage levels, this equates to a cost to the taxpayer of more than £10 per visit. This is not considered a responsible use of public money and, after inheriting this facility from the former Macclesfield Borough Council, Cheshire East has taken the decision to close it."
The automated toilet was used 3805 times in 2011 and 4008 times in 2010.
Alderley Edge Parish Council has decided to explore the possibility of coming to a financial arrangement with some of the cafes, restaurants and shops in the village who will receive a payment in return for allowing members of the public to use their facilities. A similar scheme has been set up in Poynton, which Cllr Keegan is finding out more about.
What do you think about the cost of operating the public convenience? Is it money well spent? Share your views via the comment box below.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
it does seem a little too altruistic to provide visitors to the village a £10 plus cost per go.
When I compare the annual running costs of my own conveniences in my flat;
I consider the odd bottle of bleach, reasonably high end toilet roll, those nice smelling hockey pucks that turn the water an attractive deep blue colour, the proportion of my annual water bill and electricity bill associated with these two rooms; even if went on to employ a cleaner and factor in slice of their wages devoted to the maintenance/cleaning of the thrones,going on to employ someone full time to hand collect 20p pieces from visitors to my flat wishing to use the facilities getting them to deposit the takings to the bank each day - I still can't get to £34,000, just can't do it, I tried, I really did but can't get there.
Could the public toilet specialist accountant at City Hall have made some sort of error in the sum formula in the Alderley Edge toilet provisions spreadsheet?
Intuition tells me that it doesn't need to cost so much, there has to be a cheaper solution, surely.
£34,000 is the cost of the service contract; plus, I am guessing, a bit of overhead recovery from the department dealing with the loo contracts. Overhead recovery is a black art where departments try and pass on central costs to other cost centres.
These specialist contracts only affect the former Macclesfield Borough area, since we were the only council who could afford to provide these loos.
Don't worry about it, it's only our money....
We used to have a brick building which was very costly to open/close and police for public decency. Gradually, one of the benefits of the cafe society is the number of bars/cafes with loos which the public frequent and use their facilities. That is why we are now withdrawing the facility. The cost to the Council is not £34,000! The cost will be the contract cost, plus a lump of money to pay for the time of a service department. For example, I guess we could pay two thirds contract and one third charge from a service department.
Any arguments - just tell them that Frank sent you.
One CE chap told me that the loo was not much used; another CE chap told me that it was very much used (he implied that the seat hardly had time to cool down!).
Then I found out about the cost... end of interest...keep on with the hedgerows chaps!