Portsmouth City Council has come under fire after closing a public toilet block and will have to answer a petition asking for the public conveniences to be reopened, a news report in the local media has revealed.
As part of its plan to cut spending, the local authority decided to shut down half of the city’s public toilets, including a block located in Lower Drayton Lane, Drayton. However, local residents were left quite distraught by the decision and decided to start a campaign in order to have them re-opened.
Now, a petition signed by 1,500 angry residents will go before a meeting of the full council in the hope the decision will be ?reversed. Campaigners argue that shutting the Drayton toilets has isolated pensioners and made walkers avoid the area.
They also claim that, while the council has introduced more loos thanks to a scheme where businesses offer their bathrooms to the public, most of these new public conveniences are located in tourist hotspots.
Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson, leader of the council, said the toilets could be saved if anyone wanted to come forward and run it.
“If local people want to take it on and run it as a public loo, we will give it to them for nothing,’ he said. “I made that offer several months ago.”
Although keeping the public loos open can be an expensive task, the funds required to cover the toilets’ maintenance and operation can be acquired by installing access restriction solutions and charging a small sum for access.
Toilet Turnstiles supplies an extensive range of solutions designed specifically to restrict access to a public toilet and also charge for access to the premises.
Our toilet turnstiles are built from graded stainless steel, for easier cleaning and maintenance, and also come equipped with lockable lids to prevent unwanted access. Furthermore, the separate coin box offers very versatile mounting options, as it can be installed either in front of the turnstile, at the side or alternatively, on the wall, with the cash box at the rear.
The turnstile’s coin mechanism can be programmed for virtually any combination of coins with a secure cash box to hold them, while the additional counters for the number of entries made will enable a thorough level of control over the system’s operation.
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