New park loos in the pipeline

Wilmslow Town Council has decided that, subject to receiving an acceptable tender, they will provide public toilets and a refreshments kiosk in the Carrs park.

Speaking at the Town Council meeting on Monday, 19th October, Cllr Martin Watkins said "It started with Cheshire East who wanted to build the toilets in the first place, they lost the political will to do it, never mind the money. We are concerned as a committee that are looking into this that there is a definite need for toilets at this end of the Carrs by the playground. It is a need, it's not a money generating exercise. The proposal that we have got here is that the toilets should be at about 20p per use."

Cllr Watkins added "The situation we are in now is that we have had £65,000 in our budget since 2013/4 for this. We have looked at all the possibilities and we believe as a committee that we should be going for a two toilet scheme with a kiosk which will help guide the toilets for us and garnet a small amount of income to offset the costs."

It was also confirmed at the meeting that the Town Council are expecting to receive the 106 monies they have requested from Cheshire East Council in order to cover the construction costs.

Cllr Watkins said "Cheshire East Council in saying they will transfer the land to us for the princely sum of £1 are also mindful that they will give us the S106 monies as well. In the paper you have got here it says £25,000 it may be slightly more than that but we are told that they will transfer that 106 money to us."

The Town Council has determined that they should be built adjacent to the car park and play area and as previously reported on wilmslow.co.uk Cheshire East Council has agreed to transfer this area of Public Open Space to Wilmslow Town Council for £1.

They have also spoken with a couple of contractors, who have an idea of what they can and cannot do, and at the Town Council meeting on Monday, 19th October councillors voted unanimously in principal that they are going to build the toilets so they can go ahead and produce a tender document. This will be send out to obtain quotes which the Town Council hopes to have back in time for their December meeting.

Ian Baillie, from Friends of The Carrs, presented the results of a toilet survey carried out by volunteers at the weekend in the park to support the proposal for a new toilet block.

They questioned 121 people, 106 of whom said the toilets are needed in the park, compared with 15 who said they were not. Of those who were in favour of building a toilet block, 98 said they would be prepared to pay 20p to use the facilities and 78 of them were local residents.

Tags:

Friends of The Carrs, Public Toilets, The Carrs, Wilmslow Town Council