Sidmouth residents are being invited to give their views on proposals that would see either the Market Place or Port Royal public toilets retained and upgraded – but not both.

A public consultation's under way on a major overhaul of East Devon District Council's toilets, which will involve a £3million refurbishment of the 14 'Category A' facilities that the council sees as the most important to their towns' communities and visitor economies. In Sidmouth these include the Connaught Gardens toilets and those at the Triangle.

A further eight toilet facilities in East Devon are in Category B, meaning the council is looking at leasing or selling the building. These could be turned into a different kind of facility, such as a café or community meeting place, that could still include public toilets. Town councils and community groups would be able to bid for these sites.

There are no Sidmouth toilets in Category C, which are those the council says it can't afford to run any more and will be offering to town councils and community groups who want to operate them.

But no decision has been made yet on the toilet blocks at Sidmouth's Market Place and Port Royal. Both of these facilities are listed in Category B, as sites with potential for commercial development. The proposal states that 'the Market Place or Port Royal public toilets would be retained depending on any redevelopment of these sites, or there would be new alternative provision. This would be a prime tourist / town centre location.

The council is also looking into the idea of introducing charges for using some of its public toilets, to help pay for the running costs of those that are particularly important for residents and tourists.

What does Sidmouth Town Council think of the plans?

When the proposed overhaul of public toilets in East Devon was first revealed, in May, the chairman of Sidmouth Town Council, Ian Barlow, expressed serious concern at the prospect of losing the Market Place toilets. He said that, with 110,000 uses every year, they're the most highly used in the district.

But he and other town councillors have also said they felt strongly that the Port Royal conveniences should also stay open, catering for visitors to the beach and the Ham who would not want to walk into the town centre or the other toilets at the other end of the Esplanade.

How to have your say

The public consultation runs until 5pm on Friday, October 1 this year and takes the form of a questionnaire which can be accessed here.

Anyone who needs a copy of the consultation on paper or in any other format can contact East Devon District Council by emailing [email protected] or calling 01395 517569.

Read Sidmouth Nub News's previous article about the public toilets review here.