WITH less than six months to go until district council funding stops for public toilets in West Somerset, the County Gazette has been investigating which toilets look to be safe and which are still at risk.

Faced with making difficult cuts in this year's budget, West Somerset Council announced that from April 2017 it would no longer be funding public toilets in the area.

This left one year for parish and town councils and community organisations to come forward negotiate keeping the loos open.

There are 14 public toilets affected by this across the district, and Martin Dewdney, West Somerset Council's lead member for the Environment said talks were ongoing with all parishes.

In Minehead, the town council has agreed in principle to keep the toilets open for one year while evaluating the long term future of individual toilets.

In Dulverton, the parish council clerk said: "With regards the public toilet facilities in the Lion Car Park, this council is very aware of the importance of retaining these facilities and have submitted a request for a transfer of asset to WSC accordingly.

"We are currently investigating ways in which the facilities can be provided at a sustainable cost to the public purse."

Cllr Doug Challoner of Dunster Parish Council said: "The latest position is that we are negotiating with West Somerset Council into how Dunster Parish Council can take over the running of the toilets in Dunster Steep.

"As we have already lost our toilet block in Church Street, it would severely damage Dunster's tourist industry if Dunster were left with only the toilet block in Dunster Castle at the top of very steep access points."

The Church Street toilets were recently sold at auction for £44,000.

Exford Parish Council successfully negotiated a compensation package with WSC to enable us to build new toilets, which are now up and running.

The parish clerk Jane Laycock said: "Councillors at West Somerset have been very helpful in negotiations with Exford Parish Council and we would recommend any parish or town council to sit down and talk over problems they may be having over closure of their toilet facilities."

Porlock and Watchet councils are still in negotiations to save the toilets, meanwhile Williton and Wheddon Cross councils plan to consult their respective communities before making a decision.

Old Cleeve parish council is not in a financial position to save the toilets at Blue Anchor, however Cllr Dewdney is hopeful a third party can put forward a business case to keep them open.

Cllr Dewdney said: "We have had very good engagement from all town and parish councils. Our asset management team has been working extremely hard and we will have heads of terms documents being sent out in the next few weeks.

"I think we can find a future for most, if not all of these toilets."