4:13pm Friday 10th July 2009
By Tom Shepherd
PUBLIC consultation into plans to cut the number of public toilets in Oxford will run until the end of August.
Oxford City Council is seeking to save £50,000 a year by closing up to seven of the city’s 27 facilities.
Toilets in Castle Street, Magdalen Street, St Giles, Woodstock Road, South Parade, Barns Road, Littlemore, Knights Road and Headington Hill are all under threat of being sold off or demolished.
The plans have sparked outrage from some sections of the community, who are now battling to save them from being razed to the ground.
Last night, city councillor John Tanner, board member for a cleaner, greener Oxford, said the council was “deadly serious” about listening to the people of the city before making any final decisions.
He wants people to let the council know which toilets they think should be saved from closure, when and for how long they should be open, and whether a charge for using facilities would be acceptable.
In a letter to the Oxford Mail, he said: “Is cutting the number of public toilets in the city the best way forward?
“We want to improve the quality of Oxford’s public toilets, such as Gloucester Green, and close others, such as Castle Street.
“We are proposing to save taxpayers £50,000 a year and to provide up-to-date comfortable toilets people really want to use.
“A community toilet scheme, encouraging more shops and pubs to open their facilities to the public, could actually increase the number of toilets for public use, while charging up to 50p is an option for some sites.
“We want toilets that are a pleasure to use, like the ones on the ground floor of the Town Hall.
“But these toilets don’t belong to us. They belong to the people of Oxford and we are deadly serious about consulting on these proposals.
“We want to know what residents, students and tourists think before we make a final decision in September.”
Mr Tanner is urging people to have their say by emailing him at john.tanner@tanox.
demon.co.uk or in writing to 32 Sunningwell Road, Oxford, OX1 4SX.
The city council has also enlisted the help of its Citizens’ Panel, made up of about 1,000 residents. Spokesman Louisa Dean added: “The consultation document should also be on our website by the end of July.”
For more information, visit oxford.gov.uk/ consultation
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