‘Beyond the pale’ 30 per cent increase in Kington Town Council’s share of council tax needed to take on public toilets

An average Band D household will be charged £187.51 per year instead of £145 last year - mainly to account for a proposal to take over toilets and the unknown costs of running them.

Kington Town Council’s total budget for the year is £175,000 compared to £136,000 last year and its total planned expenditure is £221,900 with reserves being used to make up the difference.

Herefordshire Council, West Mercia Police and Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue figures will be added on before council tax bills land on doormats in the next few weeks.

Councillor Bob Widdowson called the 30 per cent rise ‘beyond the pale’ and indefensible.

“This county is under-going a severe cost of living crisis, everything you want to mention is going up in price, but it’s the percentage increase.

“30 per cent is beyond the pale and it’s for toilets. Toilets are an integral part piece of a tourism policy but why should it fall on a local tax payer to pay for toilets to be used by the rest of the county. Not every council would be able to pay for toilets.

“We should not be building this cost into the budget when it may not happen.

“It’s a huge percentage increase and its indefensible.”

Town clerk Liz Kelso said; “After many complaints about the public toilets, there’s a proposal that the town council take over the management of the toilets.  

“It is not clear yet what that might cost but initial suggestions from Herefordshire Council indicate running costs in the region of £30K so we’ve had to make provision in the budget or we couldn’t even start a discussion with them.   This is the main reason for the increase in precept.  

“Total planned expenditure for next year is £221,900 so the town council will be using reserves for quite a bit of that proposed expenditure.  

“The town council did take on Crooked Well meadow through last year and of course there’s planned expenditure for the recreation ground and cottage too, once the legal issues have been resolved.”

Kington Mayor Councillor Philip Sell said businesses around the town have made significant representations about the state of the toilets.

Deputy Mayor Councillor Martin Woolford added: “We have the opportunity to take on the one thing that leads to the most complaints. The Finance and General Purposes Committee felt we had to include something and overcome some of the issues we get. 

“We don’t know what the costs will be fully, we only had limited information. Whilst I understand and agree with Councillor Widdowson when he says we are in difficult times but we would be taking on a responsibility for the people of the town and visitors to the town.

“We had to decide whether to include it or now and we decided to include it.

“How much it will cost and the state they are in means there is a negotiation that needs to take place but it would have been a financial mistake not to make allowance for it.”

Members agreed to approve the budget.