Cheshire East Council (CEC) will close the only public convenience in Alderley Edge at the end of the month.
The automatic public toilet at South Street car park has been costing the Council £34,000 a year to operate but on average it is used less than ten times a day.
In 2013 CEC tried to transfer responsibility for the pay-per-use toilet at South Street car park to the Parish Council, who declined to take on the "horrendous" contract.
At the time figures obtained from CEC showed that the toilet had been used a total of 3201 times during 2012, which means the cost for spending a penny to local taxpayers was £10.62!
Members of the public pay 20p to use the public convenience so a total of £640.20 was generated in 2012 for the Council. The automated toilet was used 3805 times in 2011 and 4008 times in 2010.
The Parish Council agreed at their meeting on Monday, 9th March, to speak to CEC about schemes which are operated in other places. In some towns and villages cafes, bars and restaurants have agreed to display signs saying that people are welcome to use their toilets and in some instances they receive a small payment from the local council for doing so.
Cllr Duncan Herald said "About two or three years ago we looked at the possibility of shifting it to the park and decided it was too expensive."
When asked about the status of the toilet block in the park, Cllr Melanie Connor explained "They won't reopen them to the public because noone will lock them at night and they have to be locked."
Cllr Duncan Herald added "I seem to recall they tried opening it twice and both times its been vandalised and the last time it was vandalised it cost £14,000 to put it right."
Comments
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Public Service Sector services should not always necessarily be provided on a Cost / benefit or profit / loss basis. If we did that then the British Army, Royal Navy, Royal Airforce and the Emergency Services would probably be considered as being subject to this type of thinking.
That type of society is one that I would not choose to live in.
I seem to recall that the device is rented at approx £30,000 p.a.
Do you think that the owners (not CEC as far as I know) would drop their rental demands?
It would be nice if they would, but ?
Maybe the owners might be prepared to negotiate if they have a choice between £30,000 and nothing, but only CEC could have that discussion, and it would have to be dependent on CEC being prepared to reconsider their decision to close it. CEC keep telling us that we are getting good value for our council tax, I would think that it would be better value to pay an extra £7 per head for a free-of-charge facility and keep it open.
The sum of the payments to participating businesses I guess would be a lot less than the £34K.
As far as I know, the idea put forward by the Parish Council i.e. that local businesses allow use of their 'facilities', by the general public, did not envisage any payment; just public spiritedness.
I was thinking more of a nominal payment rather than a "making it worth their while" type sum, to show a bit of good will. I think most people wouldn't begrudge some form of modest compensation in return for public use of their loos.
Payment or otherwise it still seems like a neat solution after they wheel away the gold trimmed technoloo.