Spending a penny will be free for locals – but tourists will have to splash out
A POSTCODE lottery will hit people wanting to use public toilets in one of Britain’s most popular seaside towns.
Over the next few weeks, visitors to St Ives in Cornwall will start having to splash out to spend a penny – but it will be free for locals.
St Ives Town Council owns eight public toilets including one which it lets out to a private operator.
All public toilets have been free to use for years but they cost the small local authority a significant amount to run.
From this summer, that will no longer be the case and to use the facilities tourists will have to pay.
But to ensure it is fair to locals who already pay over the odds for water, council tax and precept to keep these services running, going for a wee will be free.
Town clerk Louise Dwelly said that the pandemic and the diminishing use of coins and increasing use of contactless payment facilities had given the authority the idea and means to make it easier to pay to use the public loos.
She said that under the scheme only those with a primary residence in the town who pay their council tax in St Ives will get to use the toilets for free.
The town council said it is still finalising the details of how the new contactless toilets will work, but it is looking at ways to ensure second home owners or holiday let users cannot use their temporary St Ives address or share any access codes with their Airbnb customers, so public toilets are only genuinely free for locals.
“We will be giving residents a card or code to use on their phone so when they use the public toilets it will be free,” said Mrs Dwelly.
“Visitors will have to pay and will be able to use their phone or credit card to do so.
“It’s nothing new. In other towns in Cornwall you have to pay to use the public toilets.
But with the number of visitors we receive every year we think our public toilets should pay for themselves without our residents being penalised. What’s new is the contactless payment facility.”