Angus Council is poised to pull the plug on the area’s last three staffed public toilets.
The squeeze on council budgets has led to a plan to axe attendants at Forfar’s Buttermarket, Baltic Street in Montrose and Arbroath’s Market Place.
Customer numbers have been falling steadily – but they were still used nearly 60,000 times in the year before the pandemic struck.
And it’s costing the authority almost £2.50 to subsidise someone spending a penny in Angus’ most costly Superloo.
Angus facilities have regularly featured on the national Loo of the Year roll of honour over many years.
The town centre toilets would remain open.
But there are fears removing attendants will see their once sparkling reputation go quickly down the pan.
Why is the council planning to take attendants away?
There’s been a steady decline in user numbers at the three Superloos.
Forfar’s Buttermarket is the busiest and saw visitors drop from 28,085 in 2016/17 to 22,767 in 2018/19.
There haven’t been full year figures since Covid struck and the loos were closed for a significant time.
And the previous 30p per visit charge has not been re-introduced since the pandemic.
A costing exercise has revealed it’s actually costing the council between £1.71 and £2.41 for every visitor to the three Superloos.
There are seven staff employed across the three sites.
Angus communities committee councillors will consider the move on Tuesday.
Council official Graeme Dailly says: “There is no statutory duty for local authorities to provide public toilets.
“However, it is recognised that provision of public toilets does matter and is particularly important for sections of our communities, including people with disabilities, older people and families with younger children.
“It is also recognised that toilet provision is important to tourists and visitors to Angus who make a significant contribution to local economies.”
He says there have been no issues or complaints at Brechin and Kirriemuir, where attendants were removed in 2016.
There are just over 50 public toilets across Angus.
It includes unmanned loos, community-run facilities and toilets in places like libraries and leisure centres.
And the council wants to expand a scheme which involves local businesses allowing the public to use their loos.
At the moment there are just four involved in the ‘comfort partnership’ programme.
Former attendant’s concerns
One former attendant said the plan wouldn’t wash with visitors.
“This will be a disaster and they will be vandalised within days,” they said.
“The staff take a great pride in their job, as I did when I was working as an attendant.
“Angus loos have won so many awards over a lot of years.
“Visitors always used to comment on how clean they were and that made you feel you were doing things right.
“But it looks like this has already been decided.
“I can’t see it working because they’ll just be in such a state if there’s no-one there to keep an eye on what is happening.”
