Whitby’s public toilets are a ‘drain’ on the town council’s finances and have resulted in more than £85,000 of above income expenditure since 2018.
A group of Whitby town councillors has said that “urgent action” is required to ensure the sustainability of providing public conveniences and to protect taxpayers’ money.
Despite an annual income from the public toilets of between £179,000 and £228,000 a year, the town council has made a loss from the running of the conveniences for five out of the past seven years.
According to a report by a special working group, which is due to present its findings at a full meeting of the authority next week, Whitby Town Council “has expended an above income sum of £85,923” between 2018 and 2024.
Several “urgent” changes have been proposed by the working group which was set up “to investigate the financial and contractual arrangements concerning the operation and maintenance of the public conveniences overseen by the council”.
According to the report, Whitby Town Council’s contract conditions with operator Danfo “are confusing and ambiguous” and state that “the management of the contract can be best described as ‘light touch’”. The working group emphasised that there was “no evidence for, or suggestion of, malfeasance”.
Danfo, which operates public toilets in the UK and internationally, has been contacted for a comment.
“Historically, the toilets, although intended to be cost neutral, were perceived as being a cost benefit to the council,” according to the report, which adds: “Unfortunately, the toilets have never made a profit, they have never even been cost neutral.”
The town councillors said that the contract sum “barely covers the cost of day-to-day operation and cleaning of the toilets”.
‘Catastrophic loss of income’
Last year, Whitby Town Council increased the fee for using public toilets from 40p to 50p.
The decision was made after a prediction that a water rate increase on the parish toilets would result in a cost increase from £15,000 to £43,000, with a projected income drop from £55,000 to £15,000.
The working group’s report has recommended that Whitby Town Council take on responsibility for all utilities, which would “allow us to have better control of those costs” as well as the authority taking “better responsibility for maintenance”.
According to the report:
“Whilst most maintenance is already WTC’s responsibility under the terms of the contract, Danfo is responsible for some minor repairs. The extent and limitations of each party’s responsibility needs to be agreed upon so we can obtain a better idea of issues that might affect a future contract.”
A full meeting of the town council, on Tuesday, will discuss the proposals, which also recommend ending the payment of a “50:50 profit split” and improving internet connections and the reliability of card payment processes to “avoid the previous catastrophic loss of monies”.
Other proposed actions include “shrouding exit buttons to prevent people evading payment” and initiating structural repairs to West Cliff and New Quay Road toilets to “include alterations to the flushing systems to save water”.
The working group has anticipated that it will take six months to implement the recommendations and have them running smoothly, after which the authority should collect data for a year to identify overheads, areas of high expenditure and waste, to make “an informed decision on future action”.
Whitby Town Council manages the public toilets on New Quay Road, Pier Road, West Cliff, the Abbey Headland, and in the Market Place, and also runs the toilets in Ruswarp.
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