WIVELISCOMBE Town Council’s vice-chairman has urged Taunton Deane Council to reinstate the toilets in North Street after £80,000 was allocated for public toilets in the 2015-16 budget.

The toilets face closure in a month’s time unless the town council agrees to run them, and they are currently being maintained by a one-off dowry of £11,600, offered by Taunton Deane last year, to allow for the facility to be transferred to the town council over a 12-month period.

But, in the 2015-16 budget announced last week, Taunton Deane Council said an amendment had been agreed for £80,000 for public toilets in the borough with the one-year funding “aimed at working with organisations that wish to keep toilets open to do so while future options are considered”.

Brian Collingridge, town council vice-chairman, said: “What this potentially means is that the people who come to the town will have toilet facilities, which they expect to have.

“It’s very important, especially for parents with young children, because when they’ve got to go they’ve got to go. We haven’t enough bushes to cope with the strain of not having public toilets.

“I’ll be delivering a letter to Cllr John Williams, asking that he reinstate the North Street toilets.”

In a letter to Taunton Deane Council written earlier this year, Mr Collingridge said: “As a rural centre, Wiveliscombe provides services for one-fifth of the borough and a sizeable portion of West Somerset.

“The toilet block in the town is its only public toilet, and the only disabled toilet between Minehead and Wellington.

“We don’t have Taunton’s coffee shops, stores, etc, with their own alternative toilets.

“The toilets in Wiveliscombe are essential for the many holidaymakers and parishioners from a far wider area than those using Hamilton Park in Taunton.”

Prior to the budget announcement, Deane council leader John Williams sent a detailed reply to the town council, explaining the reasons behind the decision and suggesting solutions to ensure that the toilets are kept open.

He said: “These are very difficult decisions for our council to make, but we are driven by substantial reductions in funding from central government of 30% over the last four years.

“As a result we are having to review all our non-statutory services we provide to accommodate this enormous loss of funding.”