Wednesday, January 6, 2010

What is happening about the South Street public toilets?

At the Special Town Council meeting 15/12/09, I heard Cllr Ursell say there has been no final decision by HDC over these toilets. Today I looked on the HDC site to check this. True, according to the HDC website the Cabinet decided:

"Agreed to offer to St Neots Town Council the option of improving and maintaining the South Street Public Conveniences before any final decision is made as to their future."

So what about the accompanying report? Well, it has been restricted by HDC. So I am unable to find out what HDC is going to do with these toilets. In previous reports, one of the options discussed was the demolition of these public toilets because they are out of character in a conservation zone!

I quote:

"Furthermore the setting is considered inappropriate in the context of adjacent redevelopment and the demolition of the site is recommended."

"The Panel were apprised of the poor condition of the public conveniences and their inappropriate location in a conservation area."

What I don't understand is why it is inappropriate location to have public conveniences (PC) in a conservation area. The PC was there before the Conservation Area. This is a question that HDC needs to answer. According to this link to the St Neots Conservation Area map all public toilets in St Neots are in the conservation area. Either the policy is to have no public toilets in conservation areas or this is just another throw away reason to justify a decision.

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