The Council is once again moving ahead with plans to improve public toilets across the area, after a recent consultation requested by councillors was carried out.
Healthmatic Ltd, the Council’s contractor, has started work to install new toilets at Charlotte Street car park in Bath; it is planned to complete the work in November, before the Christmas Market begins.
Temporary toilets will be in place during this time.
The Council’s contract with Healthmatic Ltd will provide investment in cleaning and management services for 15 years, and means that 15 public toilets in parks, play areas, green spaces and key transport hubs will remain open and be improved.
Cllr David Dixon (Lib Dem, Oldfield), Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, said: “It will be good to have these new, modern, clean toilets in place to greet shoppers at what is one of Bath’s busiest car parks.
“The new toilets that have been completed at Monmouth Street; Odd Down Park & Ride; Sandpits play area; Alice Park, and Keynsham Memorial Park are much improved, cleaner and safer to use.
“Improvements to the remaining toilets will take place over the autumn and winter.
“These types of toilets operate very successfully in other parts of the country – there are over 110 councils all over the UK with Healthmatic toilets, from busy night-time city centres like Glasgow to tourist destinations like the Cotswolds, Oxfordshire and North Somerset, including parks, and seaside locations.”
Cllr Dixon also said that negotiations with local businesses to keep public toilet provision at Larkhall and Weston are going well, and that two new toilets at Newbridge Park and Ride will also open in December.
The new public toilets will have many benefits for local people, including:
- Cubicles will be unisex, one will be disability compliant and will have baby-change facilities – before there was no baby-change facility at all;
- The cubicles offer a high standard of cleanliness and safety and are able to handle large numbers of people using them;
- They are large enough for a parent with a couple of small children and a pushchair to use together;
- High-tech controls means access can be 24 hours / 7 days a week all year and timers can be adjusted remotely to suit local need as well;
- Access is by coin entry to a totally private cubicle with its own hand-washing and drying facilities;
- The inside is resistant to vandalism and misuse with an easy-clean tiled interior and hard-wearing fittings;
- Problems are detected remotely enabling rapid response by Healthmatic’s engineering and maintenance teams.
All of the refurbished facilities will be charged at 20p for use, in order to make the contract sustainable over the next 15 years.
At a meeting on 11th September, the Council agreed to pause the improvement programme and undertake a review of cubicle capacity and consultation with residents and users at each location.
This has now been done, and initial user surveys gave positive feedback on the much better quality and cubicle numbers.
User count data collected in the past and the numbers of people using the new toilets to date also shows that the cubicle numbers proposed are sufficient.
