Town's toilets to be sold

Peter Swindon • Published 5 Aug 2009 08:56 14 Comments

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Cowdenbeath's public toilets are to be sold "at the earliest opportunity", Fife Council announced this week.

The Pit Road facility, which was closed in May 2008 to save cash, still costs nearly £4000 for every year it is on the local authority's books.

The cash-strapped council admitted this week that it is keen to offload the building to the highest bidder.

Roddy Mann, of the council's Environmental Services department, said, "This financial year the building will cost £3,735, but that will not be spent if we dispose of the building.

"We hope to do that before the end of the financial year in April 2010."

Businesses could now pull in a £2000 annual payout from the public purse if they allow people to use their conveniences under a new 'comfort break' scheme. Cowdenbeath Leisure Centre is the current alternative.

Mr Mann added, "We held on to the building in Pit Road because there was some concern about the alternatives. Now that the comfort break scheme has been approved and the sports centre seems to be working well as an alternative, we can put it up for sale. All toilets deemed to be surplus to requirements will be sold. Anything that's saleable will be coming off our books."

Cowdenbeath Community Council collected the signatures of almost 3000 people who backed their campaign to keep the toilets open.

Chairman, Alex Haddow, said, "We expected the council to sell the building. What has enraged us is the way the whole thing has been handled. It's a total disgrace.

"I thought councillors were supposed to represent the views of the people that elected them. The SNP has let the people of Cowdenbeath down and they will be held accountable at the next election."

Councillor Alex Rowley, who leads the Labour group in Fife, accused the local authority of "riding roughshod over public opinion".

He said, "Public toilets are important for the quality of people's lives and to make our town and village centres more attractive to visitors, thus helping to sustain local economies. They are important for older people, families with small children and people with mobility difficulties and their carers.

"To suggest that the leisure centre is a suitable alternative is ludicrous. I've always said that access to a public toilet through a pool area where children and parents are in the water is unsuitable. The council hasn't put up one sign directing people from the High Street to the alternative and the reaction to the comfort break scheme among local businesses is lukewarm at best."

He added, "This week Fife Council announced that it is on the shortlist to become the best local authority in the UK. That is a joke. This council has pursued a policy which rides roughshod over public opinion. This council should concentrate not on awards but on providing a first class service to the people it is supposed to serve."

Labour councillor for Lochgelly and Cardenden, Mark Hood, urged the local authority to hand the running of Cowdenbeath public toilets over to a housing association.

A similar scheme is expected to be implemented in Cardenden after a campaign by locals.

Councillor Hood, who lobbied on their behalf, said, "The fact that Fife Council is pushing ahead with a sale of Cowdenbeath toilets is an outrage. They are paying no attention to public opinion.

"I first raised the idea of a housing association running Cardenden's publc toilets some months ago. If council officers decide to go down that route then I'd welcome it. The council should now use Cardenden as a model to be replicated in communities across Fife."

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

billy bathgate
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Aug 5, 08:43
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well there you go people of cowdenbeath, club together buy your toilets and reopen them yourselves!

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Jimmy Johnson
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Aug 5, 10:59
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Yea Totally Billy! Quit your moaning cowden and sort the problem out yourselves!

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Vinny
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Aug 5, 11:16
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Just because there was 3000ish people who signed a petition, doesnt mean that the 3000ish people are right. The council are quite right to sell on the buliding. It is costing us money to have it open in the first place, then you need to pay 20/30p to use it for god sake. Money, money, money. If you lot are so in love with this place then I back billys suggestion of you all buying it and running it yourselves.

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James West
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Aug 6, 07:13
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Yes - Think we will do that!

And when our SNP Councillors from Kelty and Kirkcaldy come to visit us once every couple of months they can have someplace to talk their P**h

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Noel Sim
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Aug 6, 07:16
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Billy Bathgate (AKA Cllr Bain) - You give not one jot for Cowdenbeath or the people who live there. Pack up your bag and go, as soon as possible please.

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Big Jim
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Aug 6, 07:34
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Vinny - Yes your right, just because 3000 people sign a petition it dose not means that they are right. But on the other hand just because two half witted SNP Councillors along with some faceless council officers say its right dose not make them right.

The point that you keep on missing is the 3000 of us that signed the opinion live and work here and we don't care what you say we want our toilets back. And we want the Cllr Bain and his Kirkcaldy sidekick to stop thinking up ideas to savce mony in Cowdenbeath - for one thing they don't have the equipment.

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billy bathgate
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Aug 6, 08:08
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here we go again with the hey look billy is cllr bain thing...do you really think a cllr would post on a news web site...and as provocatively as i do...puhleaseeee wake up and smell the coffee. i myself live pretty much in cowdenbeath and use all of it's facilities. but public toilets are minging, and right on vinny...we pay council tax for these kinds of facilities...then pay 20/30p to spend 1 or 2...lol...are you all mental???

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Noel Sim
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Aug 6, 13:56
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Billy ( Cllr Bain) - You protest too much. As a local councillor can you please stop wasting insulting the people you represent. If you want to talk down to us please at least use your own name!

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billy bathgate
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Aug 7, 08:07
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bejesus....you people really are dumb....cllr bain??? ummm naoooooo....ha....i wish i had the commitment and time to put in to such a demanding job....the man has never done me any wrong and in fact only right! i'm more than satisfied with his performance thus far and more than happy to support him...but noel if you really think i am him, well carry on...i take it as a compliment. NUMPTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Outdoor Urinator
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Sep 24, 14:38
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i dont understand the major issue here. if you need a pee outside and their is no public facility available i say - let nature take its course - pee against the closed public toilet.

thats what i have been doing since the place closed and they've yet to start reeking of pee.

a number 2 is probably out of the question though but you can always find a quiet ally to drop a stubby

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Outdoor Urinator
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Sep 24, 14:46
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i dont understand the major issue here. if you need a pee outside and their is no public facility available i say - let nature take its course - pee against the closed public toilet.

thats what i have been doing since the place closed and they've yet to start reeking of pee.

a number 2 is probably out of the question though but you can always find a quiet ally to drop a stubby

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r mchale
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Sep 26, 08:33
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its a great pity that such a serious matter has degenerated into this playground babble.i take it that recent contributors have yet to reach their twelfth birthday..

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the neighbour
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Nov 6, 12:38
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So it's you who does that - as someone who has lived in the street for many years, now that the toilets are empty our back garden is overrun by rats and the council's answer for this?????

The rats are using the dried up pipes as runs.....

Least when the toilets were there we had no bother except of course for those who refused to walk more than 10 yards and would park right in front of the driveway!

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may
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Nov 24, 18:46
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hi where is the comfort break going to be the center is to far away you have to go through the swimming pool view area which is no use anyone and there dog can use it i would not like it if i was in the pool and everyone came through to use the toilet

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