Newark's London Road carpark toilets to remain closed
A block of public toilets in Newark are to remain closed.
The block at the London Road carpark, for which the town council owns the freehold, have been closed since the beginning of lockdown in March.
The town council retains two other public conveniences at Tolney Lane and St Mark’s Place, which have re-opened.
The toilet block is the least used of the three that Newark Town Council operate so, with a 20p charge for using the facilities, London Road brought in £1,709 in revenue in 2019-20, compared with £7,544 from those in St Mark’s and £5,899 from Tolney Lane.
Investigations will be carried out into what the block, which is the rear of a café, can be used for in future.
Under a devolved services agreement with the district council that saw the town council adopt public toilets, any capital receipt from the sale of the building would be split 50/50 between the two authorities.
In a report to financial and general purposes committee, town council clerk Alan Mellor wrote: “Whilst we have received numerous calls from the general public asking if the public conveniences are open in Newark, there have been no comments made about London Road remaining closed.
“I would therefore suggest it would be an appropriate opportunity for the town council to consider whether or not this public convenience is still required.”
At the meeting, Mr Mellor said the situation was very different to when the council closed the public toilets in the Market Place; a decision for which it was criticised.
Mr Mellor said: “While we are trying to save money, it’s costing quite a lot of money to keep them open.”
Committee chairman Dennis Jones said the toilets in Newark Library, which are currently closed due to covid, are usually open to the public, and the Odeon had facilities too.
He said: “Our public toilets at St Mark’s are 250 metres away. If we are going to close them probably now is the time to do it.”
Jane Olson, a member of the committee, said it was a prudent decision but asked for better signage to alert people where the nearest public conveniences were.