Councillor's efforts mean you can now spend a penny in Blackburn
While many of the public conveniences in Aberdeenshire are now closed only open on reduced hours and others are closed, in Blackburn long term efforts to offer the public access to facilities have finally paid off.
Local councillor Glen Reid explained: "Since I first became elected in 2017, I have been trying to get more public conveniences in my ward.
"As the council has a policy which precludes the opening of new public conveniences, I have pursued the Comfort Partnership scheme where a local service provider makes available a free of charge toilet facility to all members of the public during their normal opening hours, with no expectation that the users of the toilet facilities are expected to purchase any goods or services from them.
"In 2022, I was delighted when my campaigning led to The Crafty Café being added to the scheme in Kintore and I continued to press the case for a similar scheme for Blackburn.
"Blackburn has a population in excess of 3000 and it is ridiculous that it had no public convenience.
"I spoke with the then manager of Kinellar Hall to see if they would be willing to take it on and, once they agreed, put it to officers that this brilliant community facility would be ideal for providing this vital service.
"I am now delighted to announce that everything is in place and Kinellar Community Centre has now been added to the scheme."
Kinellar Community Centre is working in partnership with Aberdeenshire Council to provide a free of charge toilet facility to residents and visitors to Blackburn, and they are open:
Monday to Friday: 8am - 9pm
Saturday: 9am - 1pm.
Sunday: Closed
During the summer holidays the Centre is closed 13:00 - 16:00 Monday - Friday
Glen continued: "This is great news for Blackburn, the Community Centre and for visitors and I would just like to thank Council officers and Kinellar Community Centre for helping make this happen.
"I am now pushing for signage, so that visitors know where the public convenience is."
