Opening date for Turriff toilets
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Years of anguish will come to an end next week when the public toilets on Turriff's High Street reopen.
Turriff Business Association, who have taken over ownership of the closed facilities , have today announced that the toilets will reopen on Monday, September 14.
The toilets will be open to the public between 7.30am and 6pm, seven days a week.
The group finalised the transfer last month, however the facility required some work to bring it up to standard.
With this work now largely completed, thanks to funding from Aberdeenshire Council's Formartine Area Budget Town Regeneration Scheme, the association are delighted to be able to bring toilets back to those visiting the town centre after a drawn out battle between the town and the Council.
The funding has ensured the facilities have upgraded electrics and hand driers as well as sufficient PPE and supplies for the volunteers who have signed up to care for the facilities at the end of each day.
The saga started in 2016, when Aberdeenshire Council first announced their intentions to close the public toilets in the Haughs which meant that the High Street facilities would be the only public toilets in the town.
After much local campaigning to highlight the importance of the Haughs' facilities, the Council in 2017 announced that they had overturned their decision - and would now close the High Street facilities in favour of keeping the Haughs facilities.
Discontent from the community at the Council's decision continued.
The toilets were taken over in 2018 by Turriff And District Heritage Society who own the adjoining building, with the support of a local cleaning business however they were forced to close them after continued issues with the way the toilets were being treated and the mess they were being left in by users.
Commenting, Turriff Business Association's chairman Marj Chalmers said: "I want to thank two of the volunteers - Joyce and Ian - who have helped to deep clean the toilets and paint them to brighten them up.
"I also want to thank my vice [chairman of the association] Rose for all of the work she put in to securing the grant and helping with the cleaning and ensuring all PPE and sanitiser is in place.
"We have also placed collection tins with a selection of Business Association members, and any donations from these will help with the running of the toilets and making sure that they can stay open."
While a small team of volunteers are in place to close up the facilities, the association is still keen to enlist more people to add to the rota - anybody interested in learning more about getting involved can contact: turriffbusinessassociation@aol.com, or alternatively speak with Marj Chalmers or Rose Logan.
