Toilets could return to Cleethorpes’ North Prom
NEW CAFE PART OF PLAN
THE return of public toilets in North Promenade, Cleethorpes, is being pursued by the council.
The latest meeting of the Tourism and Visitor Economy Scrutiny Panel received a report covering the provision of public loos in the seaside resort. It is almost three years since the 20p charge for loos in Cleethorpes was scrapped.
The former North Promenade toilet block has been shut for many years, but now it seems they will return alongside a new café. A petition was set up on Change.org in August, after crowds flocked to Cleethorpes for Armed Forces Weekend, to bring the toilets back. It has gathered almost 2,300 signatures.
Councillors on the scrutiny panel welcomed an update on public loos in Cleethorpes, which included exploring the reopening of North Promenade public conveniences. They were told that the owner of North Promenade toilets is keen to bring back loo facilities. Council officials met him on October 27 and he told them that a public toilet would form part of a planning application he will submit soon for a new café and apartment. Cllr Keith Brookes, chair of the panel, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), that members welcomed the update and recommended positive discussions continued for the return of the North Promenade loos. “Everybody was 100 per cent behind that recommendation and that the officers and council do everything they can to ensure that happens,” Cllr Brookes said.
He added he was looking forward to the time when he would be able to say that the loo facilities are being built. Five years ago, Conservative Cllr Brookes was part of a group of councillors who called for the 20p charge to be axed after Cleethorpes was ranked bottom of a survey of East Coast resorts’ public loos provision.
To be able to fund that move in 2020, North East Lincolnshire Council closed down Grant Street toilets in the town. They have in the last year been decommissioned and stripped out, with signage in place to direct to the nearest public conveniences. The building that held the toilet facilities will now be part of the council’s Grant Street car park expansion project, currently being reviewed. Plans for a single-storey extension with 268 more car park spaces created on top of the existing 65 have been in the pipeline before. The exploration of leasing out and providing a contract payment to community interest for the Boating Lake toilets has run its course, panel members were told on Thursday. There was no market appetite for this and so these have simply been brought into the council’s existing contract with Danfo to be run like other public loos. There are also plans to build new but reduced facilities at the existing Sea View Street toilets. A levelling up bid has been submitted for the new facilities, but the idea behind it is to save on contract costs.
“Ongoing discussions are required with Danfo to discuss how new provision as part of the new development will be managed,” the update to councillors says.
The update on Cleethorpes loos received by the panel was also blunt that “there is no budget available to support the running costs for additional provision”. But ways to save money and increase loos without affecting existing budgets are being sought.
Danfo invested £50,000 in North East Lincolnshire toilet facilities in its first year of being contracted to run them, from late 2018. It was awarded by the council a five-year contract worth £1,120,000 to run the loos until September 2023.
In the summer, there was social media criticism of the state of Sea Road public toilets. One man reported that only two of the five sinks had worked and there were no wall-mounted soap dispensers.
When approached for comment at the time by Grimsby Live, a Danfo spokesperson said that several soap dispensers had in previous weeks been stolen or vandalised. But they were replaced on each occasion this occurred and the company promised to keep a close eye on the condition of the toilets.