Council rethink on closure of toilets (From The Argus)

Council rethink on closure of toilets

5:00pm Thursday 19th January 2012 in News By James Wallin

A council has announced a U-turn on plans to close public toilets.

Brighton and Hove City Council’s budget proposals recommended closing nine public toilets with six remaining open but with reduced attendance hours.

But after pressure from The Argus, opposition councillors and the public the Green administration has said at least two of the toilets will now remain open.

Saunders Park in Lewes Road and Vale Park in Portslade have been identified as two of the areas where public toilets will stay open but more could follow.

The recommendations were earmarked to save £163,000.

Closed Finance cabinet member, Jason Kitcat, said: “The Government’s imposition of huge reductions in our budgets required us to find savings from all areas, including public toilets.

“It is something we proposed with a heavy heart. We focused on low usage, inaccessible toilets in close proximity to alternatives."

He added that new toilets would be opened when parks are redeveloped and the council was calling on more businesses to open their facilities to the public as part of the Use Our Loo programme.

A Leave Our Loos Alone (LOLA) petition set up in opposition to the proposals by the city’s Labour group has so far collected 250 signatures.

Deputy leader Warren Morgan said: “This partial u-turn by the Greens on the closure of public toilets is welcome, and a victory for my Labour Co-op councillor colleagues in Portslade, Councillor Jeane Lepper in Saunders Park and all those who have backed our Leave Our Loos Alone campaign."

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