Crunch meeting on future of Ludlow public toilets
Thursday 24th March 2011, 11:47AM GMT.
A behind-closed doors meeting will be held next week to discuss a deal to decide the future of two public toilets in Ludlow, officials said today. If a deal cannot be reached they will be closed on April 1.
Under a deal being thrashed out by officials at Ludlow Town Council and Shropshire Council, public toilets at Smithfield and Castle Street car parks will be transferred to the town council with Shirehall chiefs providing a one-off grant to pay for essential refurbishment work.
In return the town council will hand over ownership of its street lights in the town to the unitary authority and will forego an annual £18,000 grant established by the former South Shropshire District Council to maintain a number of green and public spaces in the town.
Town councillors will hold a confidential meeting to discuss the deal and its legal ramifications immediately after a meeting of the town council’s services committee on Monday night.
Veronica Calderbank, clerk of Ludlow Town Council, said Shirehall chiefs were in the process of signing off the deal with the authority’s chief executive Kim Ryley, but added she would be strongly recommending to councillors that they accept the proposal.
If a deal cannot be reached the toilets will close on April 1 as part of Shropshire Council’s county-wide proposals to offload toilets in a bid to cut costs.
Ms Calderbank said: “There will be an apolitical discussion at the meeting where councillors will weigh up all the pros and cons of the offer.”
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I may be wrong but it appears from this article that the Shirehall chiefs have got Ludlow town council over a barrel with an offer they cannot refuse (excuse the cliches). If the town council do not agree to it during their confidential meeting, Ludlow will lose all it’s public toilets. Ludlow is supposed to be a wonderful centre for tourism with its famous festival, food fairs, gastronomy, architecture, history etc. All those tourists with nowhere to go, so to speak. I wonder what the cost of Ludlow’s toilets is as a percentage of the Shirehall payroll?
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Half of the town’s four toilets have already closed.
The toilets at the derelict Linney Riverside Park, once a popular playground for young children, shut their doors some years ago. Spurious safety grounds were cited for the closure. Judging by the smell, those caught short are relieving themselves behind the former toilet building.
Around the same time, the toilets next to the Cooperative store in the centre of town were also closed. It is a very long trek from the Dodmore and Sandpits estates and those facilities once served an important need of the local shopper.
The toilets most likely to face the axe this week are those in Smithfield. Originally built for long-distance lorry drivers who stayed overnight in the town, the Smithfield toilets have fallen into disuse in recent years.
Truckers rarely spend the night in Ludlow these days. The poor security at the park, the lack of affordable cafes and late opening facilities in the town mean that there are better and safer places to stop along the A49.
The only public toilets likely to remain in Ludlow are those in the Castle Square car park to serve the needs of the tourist.
Once again, Shropshire Council demonstrates its contempt for Ludlow. It is a town from which the Council perpetually bleeds dry for revenue, but to which it gives little towards maintenance and even less for improvement.
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