West Lothian could save over £300,000 a year by closing the 12 automatic public toilets in the county.
The closure has been identified as part of a raft of potential savings that could be made if needed – as the council awaits news of its budget settlement for next year.
In their place the council would pay “comfort partners” – local businesses to provide public access to their toilet facilities.
The Automatic Public Convenience (APC) toilets are costly. A report to the Partnership and Resources PDSP revealed: “Analysis of usage figures at each APC over the past three years shows that to break even each APC would need to be used on average 87,200 times per annum with a payment of 30p per use. Currently the average use is 3,833 per APC each year.”
Paul Kettrick, Corporate Estates Manager said discussions were being held with disabled groups on the best options for public toilet provision. Councillor Lawrence Fitzpatrick added the council needed to be aware of the ageing population and its needs.
Councillor Kirsteen Sullivan suggested that council buildings such as the partnership offices could be used. Alongside with the comfort partner proposal the major difficulty is in matching the 24 hours access the APC toilets do.
“Where APCs are removed, users could use council facilities and comfort partners which will be pleasant facilities. By considering appropriate alternative provision when identifying APCs to be removed, everyone should
continue to be able to access toilet provision throughout the county during working hours,” said Mr Kettrick.
