I have been a member of the community council since 2019 and in all that time the subject of public toilets has been raised time and time again. Adequate public toilets are not just a convenience, they are a necessity. This isn’t something newly discovered.

The earliest public toilets known were created in Pakistan in around 2800 BCE. The Romans a couple of thousand years later provided public lavatories and they didn’t build them out of kindness, they built them out of necessity. We of course forgot that lesson until Victorian times when cholera forced a rethink over sanitation. We are undoubtedly forgetting these lessons again today.

SBC, we are told, have a policy of only one convenience per location. This disregards size, tourist visits and layout. Peebles has a population of around 9000 and a high level of tourism all year round. With the (probable) permanent closure of the Eastgate toilets, there are no public facilities near the town centre.

The Common Good provide a seasonal toilet at Haylodge Park and another at Kingsmeadows carpark. The latter is the nearest provision for Victoria Park and its playground. We have reports of desperate parents asking nearby householders if their children can use their loo. Surely this is unacceptable.

Orkney Islands Council provide 43 public toilets for their circa 22,000 inhabitants. Around 18 times as many as the Common Good provide for us, not SBC. Even West Linton has a bigger ratio than Peebles, not to mention most of Europe, some of whose tourists consider us third world, at least in this respect!

Most people understand the financial difficulties facing our council and others like it. However, these cuts are not the way to impress our tourists and encourage a return to spend their money in our Highstreet. A civilised society does not force people to go behind trees in a park, or some to have an accident, or others to knock on peoples’ doors for help. Many people have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), many have diabetes, and many men have prostate problems and when these need to go, it’s not in 10 minutes, its NOW! What does a wheelchair user do?

Public health experts refer to some of these people as being on the “Loo Leash”, afraid to go too far away from home. Easy for bureaucrats who don’t suffer such a problem to balance their budget by cutting our conveniences.

The Common Good doesn’t exist to solve SBC’s problems, it adds value to the town, in this case by providing extra facilities. We do understand the problems of vandalism and ASB (Antisocial Behaviour) which increase cost. However, other authorities seem to manage this better. Why can’t SBC? There is best practice out there, SBC should go and find it. Also, we seem to charge less than 50p to spend a penny. That charge, the Victorians’ penny should be £1 if the charge had kept pace with inflation. Better that than to close the facility and shout “Garde Loo!!!”

Peter Maudsley

Chair

Peebles and District Community Council

As always: support or comment to Anne Snoddy (Secretary PCC)