Melton Council seeks views on town centre toilet options

Following feedback to a public consultation held last year Melton Council is now urging people to have their say on several options for the town’s public toilets including their locations, opening hours and if they agree with the idea of asking people to make voluntary contributions to use the improved toilets, in addition to the current charges.

Another suggestion is to introduce ‘themed toilets’ to ‘help attract visitors to the town centre and to add to the tourism experience’.

The council is looking to replace the existing toilets at St Mary’s Way and at Wilton Road and provide new semi-automatic toilets either at or close to these car parks - the two busiest town centre short-stay car parks - which would help the authority save up to £50,000 per year in running costs and also help to protect other council services from spending cuts.

Semi-automatic toilets are individual cubicles accessed directly from the car park and each cubicle is suitable for all users. The council says there can be more flexibility in the opening hours with these type of toilets, including Sundays and evenings, as they are not permanently attended although they would be cleaned and checked regularly.

It’s suggested that selling the existing toilet buildings at Park Lane and Wilton Road would bring in income which would help with the cost of new toilets.

Councillor David Wright, chairman of the community and social affairs committee, said: “The public toilets in the town centre need to be completely refurbished to bring them up to modern day standards. The running costs are high and the income brings in only a small proportion of these costs.

“As well as providing modern, fit-for-purpose toilets the council needs to be sure there is value for money in all its services and ideally, where possible, work towards the income covering the cost of the service.

“To help with this several options are being looked into and the public’s help is needed again to find out if the council is on the right track in selecting the type of toilets, the locations, the opening hours and other factors to meet people’s needs now and in the future.”

For more information and to take part in the survey visit www.melton.gov.uk/toilets

The consultation closes on February 26. The results of the survey will be made available on the council’s website by March 31, with feedback being taken into consideration before councillors make any final decisions.