THE refurbishment of the public toilets in a Taunton park will cost £75,000.
Taunton town councillors reviewed the work completed to date by the Public Toilet Working Group and endorsed the appointment of a surveyor to work on a design, and to undergo a tender exercise to appoint a contractor to upgrade one of the public conveniences at Hamilton Gault Park.
A surveyor is going to be appointed to come up with a design for refurbishment of Hamilton Gault, as noted in the report that went to full council this week, and the upgrade is estimated at £75k.
The spend on Hamilton Gault would be covered by the £300,000 budget already set for public toilet upgrades in January 2024, a Taunton Town Council document read.
The tender will be packaged with the one for the upgrades to the Canon Street Toilets to ensure consistency and cost effectiveness.
A spokesperson for the council said: “The design for Canon Street includes more than we had previously reported to council, including a space large enough to accommodate a Changing Places facility in the future.
“The working group have also opted for all cubicles to be fully DDA compliant, with large baby changing units suitable for families.
“Since we have upgraded the plans for Canon Street, the cost has increased.
“A final amount will be obtained through the tender process however we are estimating this will cost approximately £210,000.”
Councillor Federica Smith-Roberts, chair of the Public Toilet Working Group said: “The availability of public toilets which are fit for purpose is an integral part of any prosperous town.
“The public toilet working group was set up in response to a recognition by the town council that what we have in Taunton currently doesn’t meet a standard that we feel appropriate for the County Town.
“We’ve been carefully considering how to maximise what we already have, and where we need to target our investment.
“Bringing the cleaning of the loos in house has been an important first step, giving us more control over that important element.
“The next obvious step is to upgrade some of the most outdated and bring them in line with modern requirements.
“There is a long way to go, but we are committed to this process, not just in the town centre, but where we have facilities in other areas of the town.”
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