Spending fewer pennies could save thousands

2:40pm Saturday 16th March 2013 in County News

A consultation will be held on the potential closure of nearly a third of all public toilets in Pembrokeshire.

Members of the county environment overview and scrutiny committee approved a recommendation to start a consultation with people who would be affected by the removal of 28 of the 93 council-owned toilets.

A strategy will also be developed for the remaining 65 maintained by the council with a view to making further savings. The council’s current stock costs £1.5m a year to maintain and removing 28 toilets could save around £135,000 a year.

Public toilet provision is not a statutory function and the current number equates to 7.9 toilet blocks per 10,000 head of population – the highest in Wales.

Toilets under review include Croesgoch, Dinas Cross, Letterston, Fishguard Square, St Davids, Trefin, Llangwm Black Tar, Newgale and St Ishmaels.

The council is looking into giving town and community councils or other interested parties the opportunity to operate and maintain the toilets.

The second option is to close them and dispose of the buildings.

Solva County Councillor Lyn Jenkins said her local community council would not be in a financial position to operate toilets.

But director of transportation, housing and environment Ian Westley said: “This council is in exactly the same position as that tiny little council and some councils are financially in a better position than we are to be able to operate these.”

Dinas Cross County Councillor Bob Kilmister said no alternative provision was available in some areas.

“There is no way I can vote for those to be closed because I do not think they can be,” he added.

Cabinet member for environment and regulatory services Councillor Huw George said it was worth asking the hard questions.

He added: “If a community council cannot afford it, why ask us to afford it?

Secondly, if we are not going to do this, how are we going to save the money?”

The council needs to save £8.6m over the next three years.

Comments(5)

quentin says...
4:06pm Sat 16 Mar 13

I know it's been said before, but how about a little more restraint at the top in terms of salaries and expenses? After all the rest of us are having to make do with less.

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Tttoommy says...
4:31pm Sat 16 Mar 13

quentin wrote:
I know it's been said before, but how about a little more restraint at the top in terms of salaries and expenses? After all the rest of us are having to make do with less.
I understand some councillors raised the point, they were told firmly by their "public SERVANT" i.e councils chief exec that that was not going to be discussed so forget it - however those near the bottom of the food chain are getting £5k pay cuts - It's truly obscene

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sarah7776 says...
9:55am Sun 17 Mar 13

This really is very short-sighted. Pembrokeshire relies heavily on the tourism trade, therefore working the number of public toilets per head of population is false economy. Do the Council really want to cut off a huge part of the income we receive? In response to Tttoommy, those 'near the bottom of the food chain' are more likely losing less than £5k per year. The example used was a full-time equivalent loss as opposed to an actual loss. I am not disputing that some may be losing huge amounts of their salaries, but there will be a process for appeals, which if successful I believe those potentially losing money will be allowed to keep their hardship payments. I do agree that the heads of service, and indeed the CEO, should have their salaries investigated for value for money, along with it being capped or frozen in line with the other employees within the authority. This would inevitably save money, at least in the short-term!

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Welshman23 says...
11:18am Sun 17 Mar 13

Councillor George if you want to save money reduce the fats cat pay by the same percentage as the loyal workers, recent adverts in the Western Mail for jobs at county hall with total salaries of over £220k. CEO make him redundant as far as I am concerned he offers no value to the county and finally why do we need elected officers they are powerless pubs. This would assist with your cost reduction. With the closure of the toilets lets charge county hall staff to use the toilets. Free car parking for county hall staff lets charge for this perk.

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Andrew Lye says...
4:14pm Sun 17 Mar 13

Close the toilets within County Hall, if cloding toilets in the community is such a good idea.
Those of us who work outside and drive around in our work, NEED THEM, as do tourists, and older people who need to use them possibly more often.

PS - Wiltshire County Council has no Chief Executive (post was declared redundant!) and just 3 or 4 Directors for a population 4 times that of Pembrokeshire!

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