Public toilets across Tandridge District are about to get a lot more convenient. Over the next four years, the council is investing £859,100 in refurbishing them.
Three sites will be refurbished over the next six to nine months. They are at Godstone, Warlingham and Oxted, with more refurbishments to follow as all the facilities in the district are reviewed.
It is a much needed makeover. The district has had some temporary toilet closures due to low investment in the last 25 years and facilities coming to the end of their life. The toilets at Godstone have been a particular difficulty because of an intractable problem with legionella which has led to their temporary closure. They will be the first to be revamped in this new programme.
The provision of public toilets is not a statutory service that councils are required by law to provide. In addition, they are costly to maintain and clean and can often attract antisocial behaviour.
These factors have combined to make austerity-hit councils cut expenditure on them. Recent research shows the number of public lavatories that local authorities have funded and maintained fell from 3,154 in 2015/16 to 2,556 in 2020/21 – a drop of 19%, which comes on top of reductions in previous years. Many councils, including a number in Surrey, have permanently closed public conveniences due to financial pressures.
But public toilets are essential infrastructure and the Kings Fund, a health and social care charity, reports that:
“…at an individual level, there are physical and mental health consequences when adequate public toilet facilities are not available. There are also social impacts, where people are forced to plan ahead and restrict their outings to places they feel confident they will find a toilet. Others simply don’t go out, putting them at risk of social isolation.”
The council is keen to make Tandridge’s towns and villages as attractive to visitors as possible and to boost footfall for local businesses, and we hope keeping a good standard of public toilets will help with that aim.
If you have any comments/questions, please get in touch on Cllr.Catherine.Sayer@tandridge.gov.uk
