An eleventh hour attempt to secure allocated investment funding for Peasedown St John was thrown out by the Council on Tuesday night at the annual budget meeting.
Peasedown residents with banners ask ‘Where is our money?’
Cllr Nathan Hartley proposed a sum of £20,000 to be ring fenced of the total £250 million budget for a full refurbishment of the public lavatories. The funding is needed by Healthmatic, the organisation contracted by the council, to look after the loos for the next year.
Nathan said: “This is very disappointing for Peasedown. It was a small ask from a big budget.
“With so much money being invested in other areas, I was trying to readdress the balance and get some allocated funds for Peasedown – but the council wasn’t prepared to commit to this in writing.”
The Liberal Democrats, backed by Labour, threw out the proposal and decided to allocate the £65 million fund for capital projects elsewhere.
The new council contract with Healthmatic – allowing the toilets in Greenlands Road Car Park to remain open – mean there are new possibilities surrounding a commercial or community organisation habiting 75% of the current toilet block. However funding is needed to ensure the space can be renovated making it useable and suitable for such new tenants.
Last year, Cllr Nathan Hartley found there to be no alternative and suitable provision for public toilets in Peasedown St John. He surveyed businesses, residents, toilet users and parish councillors.
B&NES Council has recently announced plans to give a further £150,000 to the £34 million Keynsham Regeneration Project, £100,000 towards the regeneration of Queen’s Square in Bath, and £200,000 to the Cleveland Pools Trust, Bath.
Cllr Hartley’s amendment received 29 votes in Favour, 33 Against, and 1 Abstention.
At the meeting, Councillor Dave Laming revealed that the private company is set to invest £22,000 in the public loos in Peasedown St John when they take on their responsibility.
.@votedave says it would be unreasonable to give £20K of the £100K budget for public loos to Peasedown, as other areas are in need of funds.
— NOW Bath (@NOWBath) February 18, 2014
Cllr Sarah Bevan says the toilets in Peasedown St John are not needed and should be demolished to make room for car parking. #bathneswebcast
— NOW Bath (@NOWBath) February 18, 2014
3 Comments
NOW Bath
Saturday 22nd February, 2014 at 09:16Hi @nathan_hartley:disqus, unfortunately we’ve had to remove your mobile number from your above post as it goes against our comment rules. These can be found here: https://www.bathecho.co.uk/info/house-rules/
You can however include your B&NES email address as that is not a personal contact detail.
Nathan Hartley
Friday 21st February, 2014 at 18:05That isn’t true. Banes won’t commit the money (see Dave Dixon’s tweet above. He says it would be ‘unreasonable’ to spend the money in Peasedown, as other areas are ‘in need of funds’)
I don’t argue on social media. Please call me to discuss: 07737 192156.
Whoops
Thursday 20th February, 2014 at 10:33Here’s the facts: £100K is allocated for 5 public toilets including Nathan’s at PSJ and ours at Larkhall. You don’t need to have an honour degree in arithmetic to wok out the £100,000 divided by 5 = £20,000 each.
Bryan Chalker and me are more than happy with Healthmatic putting in a supa dupa £22K loo, B&NES providing £20K on top and us getting on with it.
Nathan has exactly the same deal. What’s the problem?