Lancaster City Council’s unpopular plan to close 13 pubic toilets and offer a ‘Community Toilet’ scheme instead has been “called in” by the council’s monitoring group, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Cabinet decided to close the 13 toilets from 1st April 2009 last week, as part of a range of cuts in services to achieve savings of £1.7 million to ensure any council tax rise would be below 5%, as demanded by government.
£20,000 has been allocated to the ‘Community Toilet’ scheme in 2009/10, but now that plan has been requested to be called in after it was described as “unworkable” in rural areas and questions were raised as to whether all legal requirements to introduce the scheme had been met.
Objections to the scheme include concerns that in rural areas, public houses are the only alternative where toilet facilities would be open at weekends, which some people would or could not use for religious reasons. In addition, unaccompanied children are not legally permitted on licensed premises
Councillor Abbott Bryning, who is Leader of the Council and Peter Loker (Corporate Director, Community Services) have been invited to attend the Overview Meeting on Tuesday 3rd March, to outline the basis on which the decision was made.
If the plan is thrown out, Cabinet would need to come up with alternative plans before Budget Council on Wednesday 4th March which will take place at Morecambe Town Hall at 2.00pm.
• Overview and Scrutiny Meeting Details
• Budget Council Agenda and Details