Falkirk Council: Public toilets to stay closed

Instead, members of Falkirk Council agreed this week to explore the options for handing the toilets over to any community groups who want to look after the facilities.

Labour and Independent councillors argued at a meeting of Falkirk Council this week that reopening toilets in Grangemouth, Falkirk and Bo’ness would benefit elderly and disabled residents and boost town centres and tourism.

However, they did not win the support needed from either the SNP or the Conservatives.

Labour councillor Alan Nimmo, who proposed the motion, said: “Town centres are suffering – we can’t ignore this. We need to do all we can to protect them,” he said.

He was supported by the Independent councillor for Bo’ness, Ann Ritchie, who said: “Residents feel let down by the council – they come to Bo’ness town centre to shop local, but toilet facilities aren’t there and not all cafes are open so they need to go along to Tescos or go home. This impacts on elderly and disabled residents. It might only be five minutes to Tesco but for them it feels like its a lot longer.”

She said that the latest decision to close the toilets in Blackness was another blow for the ward, particularly for people walking the John Muir Way. “Are we expecting them to do the toilet out in the open?” she asked.

Both councillors expressed doubts that asset transfer would work.

As a founder member of Bloomin’ Bo’ness, she said she knew how difficult it was to get volunteers and she was worried they would not get enough people to open up, close, clean and maintain the toilets. “I just feel it’s a lot to ask the community again,” she said.

But the Conservative group leader James Kerr said that the council’s financial position meant that saving the toilets would impact on other services. He suggested that the council should seek community asset transfer in a bid to keep the facilities open.

SNP deputy group leader Paul Garner said he said he found the motion “totally hypocritical” after the then Labour administration, in 2016, had closed toilets in Church Walk in Denny and a number of automated toilets.

His colleague, Councillor Fiona Collie, said they should not dismiss community ownership as there were plenty of examples “from Arisaig to Penzance”.

She said: “Perhaps we can start reaching out to them and find out how they did it and how they’ve managed to support it. If Kinlochleven can do it, then areas across Falkirk district can do it.”

She added that she would “love to keep everything open” but the proposal would cost around £150,000 every year at a time when the council needed to save £18 million this year alone. “We should be thinking about how we balance the books and make the decisions that we need to make.”

She also suggested that they work with businesses to encourage them to allow people to use their facilities without losing money.