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Consultation over toilet closure
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PEOPLE and organisations are being asked for suggestions to avoid the closure of public toilets in the iconic beauty spot of Dovedale.
The Peak District National Park Authority, which owns the toilets, is facing budget cuts of 28.5 per cent over the next four years and the toilets cost more than £17,000 a year to run.
Director of operations Richard Campen explained: “We are having to make significant changes to many of our services in order to find savings, and unfortunately we can no longer afford to maintain Dovedale toilets. Elsewhere we own other facilities nearby, such as car parks or snack kiosks which help support the associated toilets, but in Dovedale this is not the case.”
The car park in Dovedale is owned privately and the surrounding land belongs to the National Trust.
Authority chief executive Jim Dixon has written to Thorpe and Ilam parish councils, Derbyshire Dales and Staffordshire Moorlands district councils, the National Trust and the owners of the car park.
The letter explains the situation, and says: “Before making a final recommendation concerning the future of these facilities I am writing to ask if you have any suggestions for alternative ways to maintain them.”
The Authority needs to hear constructive suggestions by the end of October, otherwise the toilets are likely to be closed by the end of March 2012.
Contact the Authority on customer.service@peakdistrict.gov.uk or 01629 816200 or write to Property Service, Peak District National Park Authority, Aldern House, Baslow Road, Bakewell, DE45 1AE.
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Thursday 23 February 2012
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Chris Morgan
Friday, September 30, 2011 at 10:43 PMThe toilets have been there for many years and clearly cost the Peak NPA a lot of money without any return. However, asking others to suddenly find £17,000 a year by 31st March sounds like putting a pistol to peoples' heads. If this situation has existed for all these years, surely the NPA should at least have imposed a modest charge years ago? The toilets are heavily used and would benefit from more money being invested in their maintenance, not less, so £17,000pa is probably the tip of an iceberg. To those of us brought up with "spending a penny" it's not hard to accept a small charge for a decent service. This issue is likely to be repeated across the Peak District, and all over the country, as more and more bodies responsible for public toilets try to wriggle out of responsibility. This is likely to be only a beginning - although in cities manymost public toilets have already gone!
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