Published on:
26
July 2012
Maple Court toilets, which closed in Alloa town centre 14 months ago, were officially re-opened today (Thursday 26th July) by Clackmannanshire Council Leader, Councillor Gary Womersley.
Council decided on 26th January, this year, On a vote of 12 to two with two abstentions, to instruct officers not to proceed with the demolition of the toilet block at Maple Court in Alloa; and instead review the provision of public conveniences in Alloa Town Centre in the context of other agreed developments.
The Public Convenience Consultation took place over a two week period from 20th Feb 2012 to 5th March 2012. The scope of the consultation was to engage a wide cross section of the community to explore the options available to the Council prior to making any decisions on public toilet provision in Alloa Town Centre.
The consultation approach consisted of - Online survey on Clacksweb; online survey to business sector in Clackmannanshire; face to face interviews with residents across Clackmannanshire; face to face interviews with businesses and retailers in Alloa; consultation with Community Councils and community groups including a range of equality groups; posters and paper surveys in a range of key public contact points; local press coverage, radio coverage and social media coverage, including websites, facebook and twitter.
Alloa Central Community Council assisted with the consultation process and ensured that a wide range of groups such as the elderly, disabled and parents were consulted. Just under 500 people completed the questionnaire
The questionnaire asked people to rank their preference from three options - no change from the current situation; re-open the Maple Court toilets; or temporarily re-opening the Maple Court toilets while exploring the option of providing modern toilets elsewhere in the town centre, for example within the refurbished Speirs Centre.
A total of 63 per cent demanded the re-instatement of the public toilets, with 25 per cent in favour of the temporary re-instatement while an investigation is carried out into the possibility of more modern toilet provision in the town centre. Only 12 per cent opted for the Council to neither re-open the toilets at Maple Court or explore other provisions elsewhere.
Council Leader Gary Womersley said: "I'd like to thank everyone who took part in the consultation exercise. We are delighted to comply with the will of the people to have the toilets re-instated.
"The views we gathered played a vital role in helping us to make this decision. We made provision for this possibility when we set the budget in February and I am delighted that public toilet provision in Alloa town centre have now been reinstated, in implementation of our longstanding commitment to do so. This is yet another example of this Council delivering for the benefit of everyone in Clackmannanshire."
Work has been carried out to re-instate all the fittings and to restore the power to the toilets.
Opening times for the toilets will be from 9am-5pm Monday to Sunday. Two members of staff have been employed and they will work one full week each, one week on and one week off. No charges will be made to the public for toilet usage.