Lollipop lady in campaign to save village’s public toilets
A LOLLIPOP lady has launched a petition to stop the planned closure of Prestbury’s village toilets.
Heidi Altounyan, who works on New Road, says the closure would leave many people without a very useful public service.
Residents, she says, are also concerned about what will be built in their place.
Heidi, 50, who also works as a dinner lady at Prestbury Primary School, said: “Walkers, parents, shoppers, coachloads of tourists, residents and school children all use these public toilets.
“I have been the local lollipop lady for around 10 years and I am very well placed to see just how often they are used every day.
“They are surrounded by green trees and bushes fronting onto the River Bollin. I am worried this tranquil and picturesque area in Prestbury will be destroyed and the area concreted over to make way for a car park or tourist information centre.
“Residents don’t want this as the toilets back on to some of their houses and they don’t want the noise.”
Disagreeing with claims following the Plan for Prestbury survey that usage of the toilets was ‘low’, she added she was unsure where people would be able to go instead.
She said: “If you use a pub or restaurant’s toilets you have to buy a drink so that’s not a solution. I feel passionate about saving the toilets and so do loads of other residents.”
A spokesman from Prestbury Parish Council said the decision to close the toilets, which cost £15,000 per year to run, was made after evidence of the high cost and low usage of them.
The toilets are expected to close in February.
Ideas for the site’s future would be discussed, the spokesman said, and offers had been made by pubs and restaurants to allow visitors to use their toilets.
Heidi will be collecting signatures during her shifts as a lollipop lady, before and after school during term time.