A WORKING group at Salisbury City Council will be set up to decide the future of the Market Place toilets.
It is expected that the working group will involve residents and a public consultation will be held before a final decision is made.
This comes after councillors were initially presented with seven options:
- Maintain disabled/all access facility only (no additional cost)
- Refurbish current facilities (£150,000 to £250,000)
- Build a new above ground facility (£500,000 to £1 million)
- A new facility with a stage (£750,000 and £1,750,000)
- Repurpose underground space (£300,000)
- Direct users to Guildhall toilets (£10,000 to £15,000)
- Community toilet scheme
Both the Market Place and Central Car Park toilets closed back in April.
Councillor Chris Taylor put forward a suggestion which would see the Central Car Park toilets – which are owned by Wiltshire Council – reopened as a cheaper alternative to the ideas put forward for the Market Place toilets.
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He added that opening the Central Car Park toilets is an affordable measure that would reduce the usage of other city centre toilets, such as the ones in the Market Square.
This was added to the other options, now reaching 10, that will be discussed by the working group.
Council leader cllr Samuel Charleston said he is happy to explore the option to retain the Central Car Park toilets from Wiltshire Council via an asset transfer and that preliminary discussions are taking place.
A Disability Interest Group of Salisbury (DIGS) representative, Anna, who attended the meeting, told councillors that losing the disabled toilets would be “extremely detrimental” to Salisbury disabled community.
She described them as an “absolutely essential community service that must remain”.
This comes after the former accessible toilet in the Market Place was made open to all when the underground toilet block closed.
Cllr Ed Rimmer questioned why there wasn’t an option to revert the toilets to their previous state before they closed.
“It was said in January that we were trying to save £50,000 by closing them, now the lowest cost item is £150,000 to £200,000 to refurbish them,” he said.
“To what extent is that refurbishment entirely necessary in order to open them and to what extent is that an added extra – and is there an option to reopen them exactly as they were prior to the decision taken in January’s budget to close them?”
He proposed to reopen the toilets as they were prior to the budget passed in January – with the lowest level of refurbishment possible in a bid to save money.
“No leadership whatsoever”
In a statement on Facebook following the meeting, he said: “The Liberal Democrat administration couldn’t agree among itself about anything seemingly and the entire thing rumbles on.
“The public are very clear about this; they want the toilets to be opened. Salisbury City Council is not listening to them.”
He added: “Now we sit and are presented with various options for spending significantly higher sums, up to £1.75m completely unfunded which have in fact been kicked even further down the road.
“The Liberal Democrat administration bafflingly didn’t even have a preferred option. There is absolutely no leadership whatsoever. The people of Salisbury are not stupid, they see that the money is there when the administration wants it to be.”
Portaloos will be in place in the Market Square for the next six weeks as part of the Fayre on the Square.
The people of Salisbury definitely need toilets in the Market Square ,we haven’t got any that people with mobility issues can get to easily.Also what about,Market traders , shoppers and visitors to Salisbury and the number of tourists that we get and not forgetting young children ?!!!? What is the first thing that people look for after a long journey or a shopping trip and before catching the bus back home…TOILETS.