Villages rally to save the island’s toilets

Bid to reopen facilities for summer thrown out

There was fresh hope this week that several of the closed public toilets on Arran could be reopened.

Talks are now going on with community groups in four villages with a view to them taking over the toilet blocks which have been closed by North Ayrshire Council.

However, with the school holidays here and the summer season in full swing, that is not expected to happen any time soon. And a move by Conservative Councillor Timothy Billings to have them reopened while talks continue was thrown out at a full council meeting, before it was even discussed.

Community groups in Brodick, Lamlash and Lochranza are all in talks about taking over the toilets in a community asset transfer, and a new group has also been formed which hopes to take over the toilets in Blackwaterfoot.

Council officials recently came over to the island and toured the four toilets with representatives of Arran Community Council and met those interested in taking them over.

Brodick Improvments Committee is keen to take over the toilets at Brodick beach and hopes to secure an asset transfer, which would see the block handed over the community for a nominal sum and work carried out to bring them up to a reasonable standard.

The group also hopes to be given some funding to

get them up and running. However, they have hit a new snag, namely that the land they sit on is owned by Arran Estates, but it is hoped this can be overcome.

At the recent Arran Community Council meeting, chairman Bill Calderwood gave a detailed account of the behind-the-scenes work being undertaken to secure the reopening of the toilets.

He said he believed there needed to be a ‘concerted strategy’ as each village was pitching against the same funding source – the Arran Trust.

They day after the community council meeting, Councillor Billings put a motion to the full North Ayrshire Council cabinet which stated: ‘North Ayrshire Council recognises that the decision to close the public toilets on Arran has caused unnecessary bad publicity for the council and is adversely affecting the tourist trade on Arran, and agrees to the immediate release £12,000 from the Community Investment Fund to enable the closed toilets to be immediately reopened and kept open for at least the next four months until a permanent solution is agreed.’

However, Councillor Billings was left frustrated after he was unable to have the motion discussed due to it being blocked by both the ruling Labour group and SNP councillors following the ‘no action’ decision at the previous cabinet meeting. Councillor Billings said: ‘I was very frustrated and angry at what looked like political point scoring to the detriment of the people and visitors of Arran.

‘I could understand if I lost my case once the discussion had taken place, but I cannot understand why all the members of one party had taken the decision to block the discussion, especially as two of their members are councillors for Ardrossan and Arran.’

Arran SNP councillor Ellen McMaster was asked to comment but declined to do so.

A North Ayrshire Council spokesman said: ‘We are continuing to engage with local communities regarding the transfer of facilities and hope these can reach a positive conclusion shortly.’