Council faces quiz on public loos

TOWN Hall chiefs at Warrington are to be asked to spell out the borough council’s policy on the provision of public toilets.
A parish councillor from Stockton Heath – where the only public conveniences were closed some time ago – will put a question to a meeting of the borough council on Monday.
Coun Stephen Taylor gained a seat on the parish council in May but failed in a bid to become a Conservative member of the borough council.
He had earlier pledged to challenge the borough’s decision to close the Stockton Heath toilets if he was successful in the elections.
Coun Taylor was formerly chairman of the action group Stockton Heath Alternative Residents Council which had a lengthy campaign to get the toilets near the Forge shopping centre re-opened.
The borough council decided to close the toilets because of “unsavoury activity.”
But the action group investigated and claimed there had been only three reported incidents of inappropriate activity at the toilets over three years – and no-one had been arrested, charged or cautioned.
As a result they believed the real reason the toilets were closed was to save money.
The parish council contacted the borough to find out future of the toilets in Stockton Heath and was told public toilets in the town had been “rationalised” at a saving of £80,000 per year. There were no plans to re-open the toilets or provide an alternative.
Since then, anger over the lack of public toilets in Stockton Heath has grown, with claims that “human excrement” had been found in the nearby St Thomas’ churchyard.