THE debate about public toilets as reported in your front page ("A very public inconvenience: crisis for council-run toilets", The Herald, January 3) and your leader column ("Loss of loos is not a minor inconvenience", The Herald, January 3) resonate very loudly with me. I was a member of Perth and Kinross Council for 22 years until 2017 when I retired. During that time I was convener of the relevant committee several times and, as member of the administration, participated in our budget review group many times.
The discussions in those meetings nearly always included public toilet provision. The underlying factor in relation to this topic is that there is no legal requirement on any local authority to provide public toilets. Thus councils these days are always in a situation where they are trying to balance their budgets to include legally required services and other services which their residents want but which they have no duty to provide.
The bottom line here is that no council can severely cut legally required services to allow them to maintain services they have no obligation to provide. Many members of the public believe that any service which has been available for many years is legally required but they are wrong.
So, there have to be serious and detailed discussions about what to do when budgets keep reducing. In the case of Perth and Kinross we did close a small number of public toilets but only where we were able to establish what we called Comfort Partnerships with local businesses. Where such an agreement was reached we paid a relatively small sum to the business to assist with their running costs. This was always considerably less than running the relevant public toilet but especially those which were attended. Signage was erected to let the public know the location of these Comfort Partnership toilets which were free to use.
Overall this saved the council a lot of money and was beneficial to the small businesses involved. Often they were small restaurants or cafes which benefited from additional custom because people would frequently stay for a snack or a cup of tea or coffee. We also understood the importance of public toilets in an area like Perth and Kinross which is hugely dependant on the tourist industry.
Not every local authority area is the same of course and decision-making will vary according to the local circumstances. However, what everyone must remember is that public toilets are not a legal requirement so, if any local authority were to close all their public toilets, they would not have done anything illegal or be liable for any court action against them.
I trust this explanation of the essentials of the situation is helpful.
Alan Grant,
Rossearn, Perth Road, Blairgowrie, Perthshire.
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