Convenience truth

Recently, Highland Councillors on the Communities and Place Committee considered a report that was dubbed a “10 year strategy for public toilets.”

In the report, somewhat surprisingly, the Poolewe Toilets were listed as open. Had the council managed to make a deal, via its Comfort Scheme to reopen the Poolewe loos? A quick call to the press office revealed that sadly no, the report had simply been written before the November 11 closure. 



A Council spokesperson said: “Until such time as a new Comfort Scheme provider can be identified the site will remain closed. As this site has been operating as a Comfort Scheme for many years the Service is not in a position to operate it from within the existing revenue budget.

 

“We would ask that if there are any groups who may be interested in taking this site on as a Comfort Scheme please get in touch with the Council,” they said. 

This of course begs the question, how many pennies would need to be spent to re-open the loos? 



For nearly thirty years, the Poolewe public toilets had been operated by the Gairloch and Loch Ewe Action Forum (GALE), on behalf of the council. But in November the charity decided that it had to hand back the keys to the council. 

The full statement from the Trust on this is available on page 20 of issue 22 of the G&DT. But to summarise, GALE said the council paid it £2400 per year, and additional donations and fundraising covered around 50% of the costs. The remaining costs were covered from GALE resources. 

Then in July 2024, “a tipping point” was reached when the council issued GALE with a utility bill of £1316.54. 

GALE said it sought to organise a meeting with local councillors to try and find a more sustainable way of funding the toilets.

There was apparently no “positive engagement” with their request and so they handed responsibility for the loos back to the council on November 10. The council then closed them. 

This left locals concerned about the future of the facility. The Gairloch and District Times contacted Wester Loch Ewe Community Council (WLECC) for their view. They said: “In July we were shocked to learn that Highland Council (HC) had presented GALE with unexpected water and electricity bills. “They told us they had been unable to engage with anyone of authority in Highland Council to discuss the future of the toilets.  



“The toilets are now closed.  WLECC consider it unacceptable that Highland Council have so far refused to engage in discussions about a service that we and our community regard as essential.  



“We find it baffling that HC are prepared to fully fund toilets on the East coast (including funding the cost of vandalism repairs), while the council tax payers in our area, who are already poorly served by council services, have to find their own funding to supplement the inadequate provision from the Council.  


“We will continue to pursue the matter with them in order to determine a sustainable basis for another provider to take over the operation of the toilets.  

“In the longer term we hope to see the facility upgraded to modern standards and we will help in any way we can, but our immediate priority is to get them open again. We will, of course, be working with our community to achieve this and we know we will have their full support as we do so.”



We thought it only fair to put this comment to the council, and sought further clarity on the operating costs of the loos. A council spokesperson emailed the following additional statement. 


“The time period for the GALE utility bills was financial year 2023/24

“Estimated annual running costs (We can only provide an estimate as we have not run them for many years) is detailed below;


• There are no rates to pay due to rural relief


• For staff costs we would suggest at least an hour a day (currently hourly rate for the Council is £12.56 plus on costs)


• Average Water costs over last 3 years £240 per annum


• Average Electricity costs over last 3 years £423 per annum


• Average maintenance costs over last 3 years £150 per annum


• We estimate consumable costs to be about 20% of overall running costs; estimated at £1079


• Estimated total annual running costs; £6476



“Our Officers emailed GALE on 9 July 2024 to explain that it had come to our attention that as the Comfort Scheme provider, they had not yet changed the utilities into their name as per clause 13 of the Comfort Scheme Agreement.



“We asked for this to be actioned as soon as possible and for GALE to update us once this had been done.



“Our staff received an email back from GALE on 18th July requesting more information and this was responded to later that day with the information that there were some current charges due which they would be required to be invoiced for.

“For Poolewe the total to be invoiced is £954.35 for electricity and £362.19 for water, a total of £1316.54. We also advised that if GALE were a registered charity, then they could claim 100% water rates relief and therefore the only cost would be the electricity.



“The requirement for all our Comfort Scheme providers is that they be responsible for their own utility costs. 



“If a new Comfort Scheme provider took on this facility they would sign up to this agreement and be responsible for the utility costs. A Comfort Scheme payment of £200 per month could be paid for this site if a new provider was interested.



“We don't understand the claim that they have been unable to engage with anyone of authority in Highland. Our Officer has been contacted by them on numerous occasions and always replied timeously.”



Unless Highland Council can be persuaded to pay more towards the operation of the Poolewe loos, it would appear any group wishing to re-open them will need to be willing to subsidise them to the tune of around £4000 per year. 


This figure is an estimate based on numbers supplied by GALE and Highland Council. It assumes that the utility bills will not be paid by Highland Council in the future.



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