Council may keep funding Moray's toilets throughout 2021
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Moray Council’s minority SNP administration is proposing that public toilets should remain funded until 2022.
During its budget in March, the council voted to fund the majority of Moray's toilets for the next six months until August.
In the meantime, talks were supposed to take place about the public or Visit Moray Speyside taking over the running 14 of the council's facilities.
These include the toilets in Elgin's Cooper Park, Forres’ Grant Park, the Esplanade in Lossiemouth and the Old Station at Ballindalloch.
However due to the pandemic the discussions have not been able to progress.
Moray Council's leader Graham Leadbitter (Elgin South/SNP) said: "In the budget debate I made clear that I wanted to see public toilet provision continue in Moray.
"We wished to maintain provision until we had a chance to explore alternative options with community groups and Visit Moray Speyside.
"In normal circumstances we may have been able to make progress on that, but no-one could have envisaged the situation we find ourselves in with the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The SNP want to see public toilet provision continue.
"While we still want to explore alternative models of delivering that service, such as through local community groups or other organisations, we fully recognise that the situation has changed beyond recognition in a matter of a few months.
"We will be proposing that the council’s public toilet provision is continued right through 2021, and we will continue to explore alternative options with our communities as soon as it is practicable to have those discussions.
Cllr Leadbitter will propose that funding continues for the 14 public toilets
at the next meeting of the council’s emergency cabinet on Wednesday.
Louise Nicol, (Speyside-Glenlivet/SNP) said: "It is important that there is certainty on this service for the next tourism season as our hospitality and other visitor economy businesses work hard to recover from the impact of Covid-19.
"Maintaining toilet provision will be all the more important with people being encouraged to support local businesses and go on ‘staycations’.
"Moray is an incredible place to visit and we need to keep up the momentum of recovery and keep it an attractive choice for visitors."
Read the latest news from the local area here
