Cost cutting council set to close public toilets

Members of a cost-cutting council will be tasked with closing public toilets tomorrow (April 29).

At a meeting at Denbighshire ’s Ruthin County Hall HQ, councillors will debate the future of toilets in St Asaph, Rhuddlan, and Dyserth, following a review.

Closing the toilets follows a draft local toilet strategy and savings proposal, which was discussed at a communities scrutiny committee meeting last month.

Backbench Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd and Gwyddelwern councillor Hugh Evans criticised the plans.

‘Disappointing’

“It’s disappointing that it has come to this, isn’t it, given the budget which Welsh Government allocated Denbighshire of about £260m, that they are unable to allocate something to protect the toilets and keep them open to the public,” said Cllr Evans.

“One or two members of the public have spoken to me and are disappointed and surprised.

“We are promoting tourism in Denbighshire, aren’t we, and need to give a good message that public toilets are open.”

If the plan is agreed, the council will upgrade public conveniences in Rhyl, Prestatyn, Denbigh, Ruthin, Llangollen and Corwen, where “cashless payment” systems will be used to charge customers.

The funds will then be used to pay for “a mobile cleaning team”.

Renovations

Denbighshire has applied for Welsh Government grants to fund the renovations.

The council hope to redeploy any affected staff to avoid a risk of redundancy payments but the report adds: “Redundancy costs would be zero if all staff are successfully redeployed, and the estimated range of potential redundancy costs runs from zero to £180,000.”

The plans follow Denbighshire completing a needs assessment of its public toilets, which highlighted a need for public toilets in the six towns’ facilities to be upgraded.

But the assessment didn’t regard St Asaph, Rhuddlan, or Dyserth as needing them.

The report states: “Given that this is a discretionary service, the council should cease to operate public conveniences in towns where it has been established that there is no identified need for public conveniences, i.e. St. Asaph, Rhuddlan, and Dyserth.

“Public conveniences in towns with an identified need should be upgraded to enable them to accept cashless payment so they can be unstaffed.”

Budget

The council’s consultation, the Local Toilet Interim Needs Assessment, ran from 22 July to 15 September 2024 and received 1,419 responses.

In setting the 2024/25 budget a review of public conveniences was included as a ‘Major Savings Proposal’ with £200,000 removed from the public toilets’ budget, reducing the budget to £70,000.

That decision was largely based on an assumption that at least some public toilets would need to close, unless a way could be found to make the service fit the new budget.

One council scheme involves offering shops £500 a year to provide toilets to the public.