Peebles loo to stay open

Inconvenience is over at a Peebles park after the green light was given for public toilets there to remain open all year long.

Currently you can only spend a penny at the toilets in Hay Lodge Park from April to October – they are closed for the rest of the year.

But the park is used throughout the year and there are park runs there on a Saturday.

Representatives of the fun run and Peebles Community Council had called for the toilets to remain open every weekend from October until April.

And last night, Wednesday, June 8, members of Peebles Common Good Fund Sub-Committee agreed to support the funding to keep them open on that basis for 12 months of the year.

The cost of the move is in the region of £2,600 for cleaning of the facility, members were informed.

Councillor Drummond Begg said: “In principle I’m strongly in favour of toilets being opened and more available across the whole of Peebles, especially for park runs and to advertise Peebles as being open with appropriate faciities.”

Community councillor Peter Maudsley said: “This has been going on for quite a while, not just in relation to Hay Lodge but the toilets throughout the town. Recently there was a lot of adverse feedback from a number of people relating to the fouling that was going on in Hay Lodge Park because people couldn’t be bothered to seek out an open loo, the nearest being Kingsmeadwows Car Park, so that was part of the driver.

“There was also a driver from a number of parents taking children to school, and although it may not be on the direct route it’s obviously closer than Kingsmeadows.

“For people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome or a prostate problem then really they need to go when they need to go.”

Members agreed to an initial year-long trial that would see the toilets remain open for weekends-only from October through to April.