The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Vine Street public toilets will be decommissioned, others in Spalding and Holbeach refurbished and a 20p charge introduced to use them in recommended changes to council-run conveniences.
South Holland District Council’s cabinet will next week be asked to back the measures following recommendations made by a task group it set up to look at the service.
The council is set to spend £210,000 on the new toilets which will have individual cubicles with automatically locking doors in a bid to beat anti-social behaviour and allow them to be open to the public longer.
The council says in a report to its cabinet that the new cubicles will “create a more modern and easy clean facility”.
On decommissioning Vine Street toilets, the report states: “It is considered that the removal of Vine Street would not have a huge impact on the provision of the toilets in Spalding given that there are a number of toilets available in the area and with new toilets recommended we could have them open longer, potentially 24/7, therefore, overall provision would improve even with the removal of Vine Street.
“The provision of public toilets is not a statutory duty for local authorities, however, it is clear that there is public demand for them and the residents and visitors we have consulted with have clearly stated that they would like to see them continue and for the quality of them to be improved.”
The report continues: “The new toilet areas will be bright and easy to clean and maintain and therefore immediately will address the cleanliness issue and have a psychological impact in reducing fear of anti-social behaviour when people are using clean and bright facilities.”
