Councillor pushes for debate on toilet charging

Cllr Richard White, a prominent supporter of charging for public toilets, has again pushed for a debate on the issue.

In a recent meeting of the Services Committee of the town council, the topic of of charging for public toilets in Newtown was brought to the forefront as officers grapple with increasing expenses related to maintenance and vandalism.

Cllr White, a long time supporter of charging for the public toilets would like the issue debated again. He said:

"I would like adding to a future agenda whether we should charge for the toilets. it's well well past 6 months, and as we've heard tonight, we've got CCTV to pay for and we've got vandalism occurring all the time."

"We've got all that expense and I think I think Members know that I was in favour from the start of charging for the loos and others weren't, but I think we should debate it again."

The town council has a rule where the same motion cannot be debated within 6 months of a previous debate.

The Operations Manager at the Town Council queried the date of the debate, as the transformation project for the Gravel Public Toilets will contain the facilities for charging.

She suggested that the debate be held in April 2025, as all works on the transformation of the toilets will hopefully have been completed by this date.