DavidofMersea
Well-Known Member
Colchester council, which pays for the public conveniences in West Mersea, has announced the seafront blocks, in Coast Road at the top of the hard, and two in Victoria Esplanade, will shut in April.
Be warned
- Thread starter DavidofMersea
- Start date
pvb
Well-Known Member
All councils are trying to save money by offloading services. If you want to keep the toilets, residents need to lobby the West Mersea Town Council to take them over.
DavidofMersea
Well-Known Member
West Mersea’s mayor Peter Clements said: “There is no way on the amount of money we receive, we would run the public toilets.
“It is something that should be carried by the whole borough.
“It is a very expensive thing to run. We couldn’t possibly afford it.”
The seafront toilets are used by visitors, as well as fishermen, sailors and beach hut owners.
pvb
Well-Known Member
The Town Council sets it own budget, and effectively receives whatever amount it asks for, so the comment about "the amount of money we receive" is misleading. West Mersea can ask for whatever amount it needs, and it will be collected through Council Tax by Colchester Borough Council.
Steve Clayton
Well-Known Member
Put a 6% "facilities" tax on all purchases for those who do not reside with the Borough (grockles
) - hit the hotels and the B&B's first then roll out out to all outlets; You can prove you live within the Borough with a utility bill
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DavidofMersea
Well-Known Member
I don't know much about local government, but are you sure that is correct? It seems hard to believe that CBC would give Mersea whatever they wanted. Anyway the toilets are generally not used by the locals, but visitors, mostly from Colchester
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Concerto
Well-Known Member
There was me thinking this was an early April Fools Joke.
Surely they cannot be that expensive to run. There must be someone locally who would be happy to oversee their running. Where I live we have the highest local precipt in the area as we have a large number of trees to be maintained, lots of grass needing cutting and also have local litter pickers to keep the village tidy. We accept the cost of living here as being worthwhile.
Peter Clements should realise the importance of these facilities, as he is also a local yachtsman, but no doubt feels the political pressure to economise services as being more important. Shame on him for his quoted comments.
DavidofMersea
Well-Known Member
As I understand the situation, Colchester Borough Council fund West Mersea council, and Peter Clements is saying that CBC do not give WM enough pay for the maintenance of the toilets - and if that is true, I cannot see it is Peter Clements fault
MoodySabre
Well-Known Member
In Southend the council granted leases on some of the toilets and they became food outlets on the condition that toilets were kept available for public use. One of them is called Tolouse! The loos are much better than the old council ones just not quite so big. Privatise loos - way to go.
DavidofMersea
Well-Known Member
In Ibiza, and perhaps mainland Spain as well, there are no public toilets. There is a law that says that if you run a restaurant, hotel, bar, etc., you must allow Joe Public to use your toilet
pvb
Well-Known Member
West Mersea Town Council sets its own annual budget, and then requests the money it needs (called a "precept") from Colchester Borough Council, who collect it via Council Tax. Parish and Town Council precepts are not subject to capping, so they can ask for whatever they reasonably need. It would seem reasonable for a tourist town to provide some public toilets. So Peter Clements isn't telling the whole story.
DavidofMersea
Well-Known Member
Why would PC not be telling the whole story? It is CBC that are closing the loos, and why would PC protect them against Mersea interests?
johnalison
Well-Known Member
I have seen the same thing working in the Netherlands and Germany. People are usually expected to pay one euro but it would need a major cultural shift for it to work in Britain.
tugger
Well-Known Member
Unless, like street lighting and some other public facilities, it is a facility not run or paid for by WMC rather, it is run and funded by CDC and Peter Clements was commenting that if WMC were expected to take them over in lieu of CDC, WMC would not have the money because it hadn't been budgeted for.
Sorry I mean Colchester B for Borough not D for District.
pvb
Well-Known Member
You'd need to ask him. Maybe he hopes CBC will change their minds. Maybe he doesn't want to be seen to be increasing West Mersea's precept. Maybe he doesn't understand how his council is funded.
DavidofMersea
Well-Known Member
Always free in Ibiza, although some bar owners lock the loos and only open them for their customers, which is something they are not supposed to do.
A € for a pee is a bit expensive
sailorman
Well-Known Member
Its nice to see that my former broker is still busy :encouragement:
DavidofMersea
Well-Known Member
I have now asked
tillergirl
Well-Known Member
It is not entirely straight forward. Colchester are being selective, for example the facility by the library is being kept open. But I suspect that the Town council will be unhappy that Colchester collect rates and many rents on the beach huts and certainly in relation to the facilities at the Esplanade, it is the users of the beach huts who use the facilities.
pvb
Well-Known Member
The basic problem is that council tax increases are capped for borough/district councils, but not for the element represented by their parish/town council precepts. So, faced with increasing costs and a limit on how much they can increase council tax, borough/district councils are increasingly trying to offload expenditure on to their parish/town councils. At the end of the day, we'll all be paying more council tax, but the proportions may be accounted differently.
