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Toilets face an uncertain future
PEOPLE hoping to spend a penny might have to look harder to find relief as public toilets face the threat of closure.
Chiltern District Council has written to town and parish councils to ask whether they would consider taking on running the loos in their areas.
If they choose against doing so by the January 15 deadline, they warn they could be closed and be demolished.
Great Missenden Parish Council decided it would not make any provision in its budget for the two public conveniences in Link Road car park and in High Street, Prestwood, at its council meeting over fears that annual costs could be as high as £17,000.
Parish clerk Jane Duffy said the council was 'dismayed' at having to make the decision at a time when it was completing its budget. She said: "The parish council was a bit held to ransom really. The council was not panicked into making a rash decision and will not take over the toilets this year.
"This is a worry trend if this is what the district council wants to do, not just in Great Missenden but in the whole district. We have a lot of tourism with the Roald Dahl Museum, three schools in the village, and people using the playing fields are here for hours on end. It's like going back in time. We will be having to deal with all sorts of mess."
If the parish and town councils decide to take on the facilities, they would be responsible for maintenance and costs for cleaning, water, electricity and insurance.
In Chesham there are two sets of public toilets in the area are threatened - at Star Yard car park and in The Moor. Chesham Town Council plans to discuss the issue next month. Public toilets at Lowndes Park would be unaffected as they are maintained by the town council.
A Chiltern District Council spokesperson said: "The provision of public toilets is a discretionary service. We are currently undertaking a budget consultation and as part of this have asked members of the public how important public toilets are to them and whether they would be willing for us to spend less on providing this service.
"We have also written to parish and town councils asking them whether they would be willing to take over the running of the public toilets instead of the district council."
The results of the consultation, which ended on Monday, will be reported to the cabinet in the new year, she added.
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I cannot believe that the District Council is even considering taking this action. We are provided with very little in the way of services for the Council tax we pay and this is the final straw to take away a new and modern facility in Prestwood and to consider demolishing it, what a waste of our money! This facility was only built quite recently and is a very necessary convenience for not only young mothers with small children walking their children to and from school but also the elderly. Prestwood has a very long stretched High Street and these loos are also well used by the many commercial drivers passing through the village. The local businesses were very relieved when the decision to build the loos was taken as they were frequently being asked to offer their own facilities to lorry drivers etc.! Shame on you Chiltern, and where and what are our local councillor's doing about this?
Your correspondents narrative is interesting but a little wide of the mark. Chiltern provides numerous services to local people that they perhaps routinely don't see - bins, planning, building control, environmental health, community grants, sports centres, verge cutting and I could go on. All of this is offered to local residents for a cost that is on average less than GBP20 per month when you break down council tax to the element that Chiltern is responsible for.
Turning to public conveniences I want to challenge the suggestion that the Prestwood and Heath End councillors have been in some way complicit in this issue.
(i) at the Performance and Resources Committee that I chair when this cut was raised I stated with support from other members that this is a cut too far and should not proceed for public health and amenity reasons.
(ii) at Full Council when I discovered that letters had been sent to the Parish Council on the issue I spoke again at length at the importance of public conveniences not just in Prestwood but across the entire District - I was joined in this by amongst others Cllr Elizabeth Stacey.
Since then I have had several discussions with the Leader of Council in which I have reiterated my stance. For his part he has indicated that no final decisions have been taken on the future of our public conveniences.
You can rest assured that this is an issue that I and the other Prestwood and Heath End Councillors are very focused on and stand poised to make a big noise about should this move from being a proposal to a reality.
In concluding I'm sad to report that as our Central Government Grant to provide services declines year on year in real terms and as C Govt loads ever more responsibilities upon Councils difficult choices need to be made over our service priorities. Discretionary services are the only ones we can make cuts in so over time we should sadly expect to see some of the servicves that Chiltern is not statutorily obliged to offer disappear. This isn't because I or any other councillor wants to take them away but is because we are chronically underfunded. Given the parlous nature of the countries finances this is unlikely to improve any time soon.