Senior councillors confirm public toilets axe

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

Senior councillors have voted unanimously to shut half the county’s public toilets, despite a motion proposing to halt the closures.

In July Conwy announced it would close 19 of its 40 public toilets on 4 September 2024, causing outrage amongst members who said they were given just two hours’ notice.

The authority also said it would scale back public conveniences’ opening hours and close services in the autumn and winter.

But the closures were put on hold when Conservative councillors tabled a motion to halt the plans.

The Tories argued the council had opted to shut the toilets behind closed doors without proper consultation, including with local members – contrary to a cabinet resolution last November.

Scrutiny committee

The matter was then discussed by a Conwy scrutiny committee, which voted to advise the cabinet that toilet closures should be suspended until statistics are provided on the use of toilets, as well as a “meaningful consultation” being carried out with councillors.

But at the meeting yesterday afternoon (10 September) the cabinet refused the request to delay closures.

Whilst the leader and cabinet member said the door was still open for town councils and other third parties to discuss funding toilets, the cabinet refused to keep doomed public conveniences open in the meantime.

Cllr Louise Emery pleaded with the cabinet to keep toilets open until October 31 to allow further conversations to take place.

“I don’t want to talk about what we do when toilets are closed,” she said.

“I want to talk about keeping them open, and this is exactly what this notice of motion and recommendation from scrutiny asked – is that we be given more time.

“Now we can debate where we are and county councillors not being informed early enough, but I can guarantee on behalf of the Llandudno area that there have been [having] very fruitful discussions over the last few weeks.

“I’ve had conversations with community groups and friends’ groups and church groups, which is exactly why we wanted that heads up early, so we could have those conversations.

“But we are where we are, and the notice of motion is asking for more time.

“Now I appreciate every day they stay open has an impact on ERF (environment, roads, and facilities department) budgets, but we need the decision today on whether you are going to take notice of what scrutiny have said.”

She added: “I know you can’t be unending.

“But if we could have more time, I have a town council meeting on Thursday as a town councillor, and we are looking at ways we can come together with other groups to keep these toilets open.”

Tourist areas 

Cllr Simon Croft agreed. “It is a real shame we’ve got to do this, especially in the tourist areas,” he said.

“All the money we’ve spent on tourism and promoting the town, it’s of no use at all if people come in and there are no toilets available for kids.

“We’ve completely wasted our money. We’ve got to find some way to work around this. It is absolutely crazy.”

Cabinet member for infrastructure, transport, and facilities Cllr Goronwy Edwards said delaying the closure of toilets could cost the authority tens of thousands of pounds.

Cllr Edwards also claimed that the councillors who had signed the call-in knew about the closures much earlier than they claimed.

“The information was out there. I sit on Conwy Town Council as a town councillor.

“I sit on Henryd Community Council – the information went out in Amanda’s (Amanda Hughes, finance director) letter about the pressure on the council’s budget, and all the community councils who were interested took that opportunity to engage with our officers and were given the information,” he said.

“Now the fact is that, the people who have signed this call-in, they are all town and community councillors as well, so they’ve all had the same information exactly, but they’ve chosen not to be part of the (town council toilet) sponsorship scheme.

“So, it’s a bit rich when they come forward and say we want time to consult now when that time has been in place and we are still open to discussion with town and community councils.

“We haven’t closed the door, but we have to go on with a budget that we simply don’t have.

“So to prolong the decision-making process means I will have less money to support the toilets we are keeping.”

He added: “I don’t see the need for a pause in what we are doing, other than an unnecessary cost.”

Limited budget

Cllr Charlie McCoubrey said the cabinet had to make “really difficult decisions”.

“It’s about choice, isn’t it? We have a limited budget. We have to sustain what we’ve got. We don’t want to end up in a situation where we have no toilets,” he said.

“If members want to call it in, then they need to be aware that is taking further money from that budget.”

Cllr Louise Emery said: “If you give us the time… we could end up helping you out, not just keeping things open all year around but taking the toilets on completely so next year you find the town councils are funding toilets that even now you are beginning to fund seasonally.”

Cllr McCoubrey responded: “Where would that £60,000 come from, Louise? Do you want it to come from an existing budget or do you want to add that onto the council tax bill because we have to be clear about this? It is a substantial sum of money.”

The cabinet’s decision was unanimous.