Seaton and Colyton public toilets still at risk of closure, despite strong objections from residents

Public toilets in Seaton and Colyton are still at risk of closure, despite strong support expressed for most of them remaining open during a recent consultation.

An extraordinary meeting of East Devon District Council's Overview Committee has been called for Thursday, November 25 when councillors are set to make recommendations on the future of public conveniences across the area.

The Harbour Road, Seaton Hole and Marsh Road toilets in Seaton remain at risk of closure, as well as the Dolphin Street toilets in Colyton.

With a projected budget deficit of around £3million to 2024 and rising costs across many statutory services, East Devon District Council (EDDC) cannot continue to operate all the public toilets it currently has, so it has been investigating the locations and potential alternative uses for some sites.

More than £3million is going to be spent on upgrading a number of public toilets across East Devon, but others may be closed down.

Toilets facilities were proposed to be placed into the following three categories in the public consultation:

Category A – The council will keep the facility open upgrade it.

Category B – The council will look at other options for the use of the site, including marketing a lease opportunity for a different offer such as a café, to include a publicly accessible toilet, or sell the public toilets, depending on the options for each particular site.

Category C – The council believes there is no commercial alternative that could provide an income and publicly accessible toilet at these sites. Instead, it proposes that these sites be offered as a freehold transfer for a negligible/very low amount to the town or parish council or community group to operate.

'Exceptional response' to public consultation

The council received almost 1,300 responses to its public consultation on toilet facilities during August and September, which has been described as an "exceptional response".

As well as the general public, the council also consulted with a number of equalities groups.

A lot of respondents said that they should not close or reduce public toilets and should instead find a way to continue to afford to run all of them. However, the council said hardly any respondents put forward actionable ideas on how they could continue to fund all the toilets considering its current financial situation.

An officer report released ahead of next week's meeting said: "We expected this response as this service is highly emotive and used by a lot of people.

"It remains, however, that in order to address our budget deficit and be able to afford to maintain what we have, we need to make some difficult decisions on what we can afford in relation to discretionary (non-statutory) services."

From the consultation responses, 58% of people agreed with EDDC's proposed guiding principles for public toilet provision, and there was general acceptance of these and the need to review how it provides the service.

However, the most disagreed with principle was proximity, with people noting it could be difficult or even impossible for young children, those with medical or mobility issues or older people to walk eight minutes to a public toilet.

A total of 80% of respondents either strongly or tended to agree that East Devon public toilets were in need of refurbishment, and 56% agreed that they would pay to access public toilets if it helped keep sites open in future years.

Surprisingly, over a third of people agreed with the categorisation of every public toilet site as proposed.

The officer commented: "We felt this was high considering this was really an acceptance of the need to provide public toilets differently, or at fewer sites than we do currently."

However, a significant amount of people throughout the district did not support the idea of Category B toilets being provided in a different way and felt public toilets must continue to be provided.

A lot of respondents also felt that alternative uses such as cafés meant that opening times would be limited and dictated by the café or business, which may not meet the needs of the public.

Respondents, however, were more supportive of Category B uses, rather than toilets being closed altogether.

In Seaton, particularly, respondents cited the example of the Chine Hideaway which they said was an unreliable toilet as it closed without notice, and even in the height of summer only opened for limited hours.

The issue of access at the Hideaway had been impacted by the pandemic, as access was restricted to patrons only through this time and opening curtailed.

Harbour Road toilets

With regards to the Harbour Road toilets, 65% of respondents from Seaton disagreed with the Category B proposal for alternative use. The report notes there was a "co-ordinated campaign in Seaton which may have increased the percentage".

Respondents argued that these were the main public toilets for people arriving at Seaton and alternatives at Seaton Tramway or in Tesco were not well known enough or easy enough to access, and there was not clear signage to say they were public toilets.

Toilets at West Walk were considered too far away for young families or people with disabilities, medical issues or older people to walk to.

However, the officer comments: "Part of the planning condition for Tesco was that they had toilets available for public use, so with some improvements in signage and discussions with Tesco we feel this is a reasonable mitigation given our imperatives.

"Seaton Town Council did not wish to take on any toilet sites. Furthermore, the expressions of interest for this site suggests a cycle hire venue or bike café with a publicly accessible toilet remaining, but operated by the business is viable."

Seaton Hole toilets

A total of 62% of respondents also disagreed with the Category B proposal for alternative use at Seaton Hole toilets, but again the council noted there was a co-ordinated campaign against this.

The main objection was that these toilets were important for coastal path visitors, and the next nearest facilities were not close enough as one had to follow the long coastal path. They argued this contravened the council's own guiding principles as the nearest alternative facilities were not within eight minutes, but more like 25.

In response to concerns, the officer commented: "Given our imperatives, and given that we don't have public toilets in other locations to service the coast path only, we recommend this is taken forward as Category B and discussed with the café, who could be offered the option to include it within their lease or the site marketed."

Dolphin Street toilets

In Colyton, 100% of respondents from Colyton disagreed with the Dolphin Street toilets being placed in Category C. Again, the council said this may have been down to a co-ordinated campaign.

Residents argued that 90,000 arrived in Colyton on the tram every year and needed access to toilets as they visited the town centre.

The officer commented: "The tram does have toilets at both ends and the water consumption indicating level of use for this site is the third lowest in the district.

"It was unclear through the consultation if Colyton Parish Council would take on these toilets, but they have previously indicated they might be interested.

"It is suggested these toilets are considered outside of what East Devon can afford to provide and further discussions are held with Colyton Parish Council or alternative uses sought for the block."

Marsh Road toilets

Marsh Road toilets in Seaton have also been placed in Category C but a low percentage of respondents disagreed with this.

The officer said: "Seaton Town Council were not interesed in taking on any sites and so this site should be offeredfor community use (there was one expression of interest for a cycle/walking hub), and if there are no interested parties, then disposed of on the open market."

In total, the report recommends that eight sites from the Category B and C lists, including the Harbour Road, Seaton Hole and Marsh Road toilets, have their category confirmed at the meeting next week and work is undertaken to conclude negotiations with interested parties within six months from July 2022.

This would create savings of £125,926 for East Devon District Council.

The Dolphin Street toilets in Colyton is one of six sites across the district that is expected to have its category confirmed following further discussions with interested parties.

This would create further savings of up to £118,789.

A total of 14 Category A public toilets are proposed to remain open, including the Jubilee Gardens toilets in Beer.

'Exciting opportunities for alternative uses

Commenting on the proposals, the officer wrote: "In considering all of the information from the consultation and while compiling our Environmental Impact Assessment, we have thought deeply about the impact on our communities and those with protected characteristics.

"We've taken account and considered deeply the issues raised in the consultation, and explored the impacts on different protected characteristics, as well as documenting the justifications or considerations we've made against these in the Environmental Impact Assessment

"We've listened to the feedback we've had and are suggesting further discussions in some locations as a result, but with an anticipation that all proposed categorisations will be approved, and negotiations completed in due course.

"We think there are exciting opportunities in some cases for alternative uses such as community spaces or cafés, which in some instances could still have community public toilet access, would reduce East Devon's direct costs and support a new business or community use."

Commenting on the need to make financial savings, the officer continued: "In an ideal world we would have the budget to continue provision at all sites, to invest in all of our public toilets to improve the buildings and the design of the facilities and to include accessible features, better baby change, and adult changing places and address gender equality through the ratio of toilet available.

"The difficult reality is we don't have that luxury. The whole public toilet review was designed to set out a logic to provision which sought to safeguard a level of access whilst minimising the impact of reduction elsewhere.

"Our reduced financial settlement from government and rising cost of services above income (including council tax) means we have to look at cost reduction and in some cases discretionary service cuts.

"We have a legal obligation to set a balanced budget, with a projected budget deficit of around £3million to 2024 and rising costs across many statutory services, we have to consider savings in some places.

"If we don't provide a saving towards the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) shortfall in an area where we can still provide the service in some shape, we will need to look at cuts elsewhere which may result in total service cessation.

"Originally, a target of at least £200,000 was set out against public toilet provision for the MTFP, but since then our financial position has become more acute with new cost pressures increasing our budget deficit.

"As such a focus on realising as much of the saving potential, with a reasonable level of retained service should be sought. The possible saving is between £200 and £430,000 depending on options and income generation from paid access."

You can find details for the virtual meeting of the Overview Committee on Thursday, November 25 by clicking here. Any decisions made at the meeting will then go to Cabinet.