Appeal to prioritise pristine public loos

A councillor has called for money spent on Argyll and Bute’s public toilets to be used exclusively to keep them clean.

South Kintyre SNP Councillor John Armour hit out at the condition of some public conveniences in the area and called for more regular cleaning to be brought in.

The discussion took place during a meeting of the council’s environment, development and infrastructure committee on Thursday June 2.

Councillor Armour asked: ‘Is all the income generated from public conveniences going to be ring-fenced for their upgrading, or for extra cleaning?’

Council executive director Kirsty Flanagan responded: ‘Most of the income goes straight into the fund. The only area that is ring-fenced is for piers and harbours.’

Councillor Armour said: ‘Is that not something we should look at? The condition of some of our toilets is pretty poor, and this may be a way of getting some extra income that could at least keep them a bit cleaner.

‘This is an issue I raised pretty much all of last summer.

‘All it needs is for the toilet to be spotless in the morning, but if used a lot during the day, come the afternoon it is not the most pleasant for anybody to be using. I would like to think that funding could be used to increase the cleaning regimes.’

Ms Flanagan answered: ‘It is something we would need to look at as part of the budget. As you know, we are faced with a challenging budget gap for future years.’

Mid Argyll SNP councillor Jan Brown then asked about the cost of using some of the public toilets in Argyll and Bute.

Councillor Brown then added: ‘I would be pushed to spend a penny in some of our conveniences, never mind 50 of them, with the condition of them.’