THE Bath Road public toilets are getting closer to reopening after months of delays.
Melksham Town Council has said that the toilets will reopen once repairs to the building’s roof are completed and the lease for the building is confirmed by their solicitor.
At a meeting last month of the council’s asset management and amenities committee, the town council’s head of operations, Hugh Davies, explained that contractors have repaired two of the cubicles in the toilet block, and that they could be open ‘within the month’.
“The next step is to sort out the roof, guttering (with anti-vandal caging), good outdoor lighting, cleaning the outside of the building and generally sprucing up the area,” said the head of operations in a report to councillors. There are also plans to upgrade CCTV coverage in the area of the toilet block – which was described by deputy major, cllr Colin Goodhind, as ‘urgently needed’.
Hugh said in his report, “CCTV has been reinstated on the pole adjacent to the Bath Road loos, which can cover the skate park as well as across the field up to the pavilion. Consideration needs to be given to replacing the defunct CCTV that exists on the building (Bath Road toilet block) over each cubicle door too. A rough estimate for CCTV for this would be £3,000.
Town councillors unanimously agreed to finalise the repairs of the Bath Road toilets and purchase new CCTV equipment – which will both be funded from the £50,000 budget already earmarked for the project.
At the meeting, it was also suggested that the back wall of the toilet block could become a feature wall for local graffiti artists.
The town council originally announced its intention to reopen the public toilets on Bath Road in November 2018. Their plans have been met with numerous setbacks, including last year, when the toilet’s water point was tarmacked over in error.
