COUNCILLORS and residents in west Cornwall have warned people will use the street as a toilet if Cornwall Council plans to close public conveniences go ahead.
The authority plans to pull the plug on funding for almost half of its public toilets – including seven in Penzance, five in St Ives and ten more across St Just, Hayle and other parts of Penwith – in a bid to save £1 million. Many of the toilets are at key seafront locations.
Now councillors and residents are warning that people – including the elderly and disabled – could be forced to go to the toilet in the street.
Cornwall councillor Tamsin Williams said: "Any closing of toilets may also lead to an increase in defecation in alleys and in people's gardens too.
"We are supposed to be a tourist area and in order to offer the best environment to visitors and locals alike it is imperative to have decent public conveniences."
Concerns have also been raised about locations like Wherrytown, in Penzance, where a public toilet earmarked for closure sits next to a popular skateboard park.
Cornwall councillor Ruth Lewarne said the removal of any toilets from the seafront in Penzance was "crazy in a tourist town" but highlighted the example of Wherrytown, where young people gather all year round.
She said: "Where will they go to the toilet? Will they go home or cross that busy road and walk along to the play park?"
Threatened
One disabled Cornishman reader has threatened to urinate in the doorways of public toilets if they were closed.
He said: "I am diabetic and I plan all my days out around where public lavatories are situated.
"What else am I supposed to do when so many of these lavatories are closed by Cornwall Council?"
Town Councillor David Nebesnuick said Penzance was being unfairly targeted by the proposed cuts.
He said: "This is a holiday town as well as a market town. We have a wonderful cycle and walking route from Marazion to Newlyn but no one is going to be able to go to the toilet on it.
"We have already paid for these toilets and if the town council is forced to take them on they will have to raise the council tax precept and we will pay twice."
Last week Cornwall Council's environment and economy overview and scrutiny committee agreed to recommend the closures to the council's cabinet.
Cornwall Councillor Les Donnithorne, one of the working party who came up with the plan, said: "We don't have any alternative but to do this."
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN