A THORNBURY man has criticised the town council for not investing in toilet facilities for the town.

In 2011, councillors decided to cease funding the public toilets in Quaker Lane because the costs to renovate the facilities were deemed to be too high.

Vandalism had plagued the building which is owned by South Gloucestershire Council but the running costs were funded by Thornbury Town Council.

Peter Mainstone, of Buckingham parade in the town, bemoaned the lack of action by Thornbury Town Council in improving facilities including public toilets in the town.

“The council has a balance of over £400,000 but the only public toilet is a port-a-loo on the Chantry playing fields.

“They have hundreds of thousands of pounds in a bank account doing nothing and it only is adding about £400 a year in interest – that is peanuts.

“The public toilets in Thornbury have been abandoned because the council didn’t have the money to refurbish them but they have £400,000 sitting in a bank account.

“For them to have this much money stored away and to do nothing to improve one of the most basic facilities is terrible.

“The toilets near St Mary Centre are run during business hours and close at 5pm so there are no toilet facilities in the town, in the evening.”

The cost of refurbishing the Quaker Lane facilities was estimated to be about £50,000 – a cost which Thornbury Town Council deemed too high to justify.

A spokesman for Thornbury Town Council said that the toilets in Quaker Lane were closed by south Gloucestershire Council on health and safety grounds because the cost to carry out the necessary maintenance on them was too high.

“Since the toilets were closed the council has set up a community toilets scheme. Every business in the town was contacted as part of the scheme. The Swan, The Wheatsheaf and the Armstrong Hall complex have all signed up to be a part of the scheme and are paid a grant by the town council so that anyone can use these toilets.

“A disabled toilet at the Armstrong Hall is available 24 hours a day with a Radar key (a universal key which is used to open accessible toilets across the country), so there are facilities available.”

Addressing the council’s budget the spokesman added that the balance is budgeted “to the penny” and that the council could not afford to run a toilet block.

“We receive precepts in two lumps sums throughout the year. These are agreed with by South Gloucestershire Council and cover things such as grass cutting.

“It is both misleading and untrue that the council is just sitting on £400,000. By law we must have a contingency fund available but we would not be able to afford a decent toilet block and even if we did we have nowhere to build one. Running a good toilet block costs between £17,000 and £20,000 a year.”

The port-a-loo on the Chantry Playing Fields was installed by Thornbury Town Council after complaints from residents that the sports teams were urinating on bordering residents’ walls and hedges.

The council spokesman added: “The port-a-loo is solely there for use by the rugby and football teams who use the fields and for any spectators.”