STONEHAVEN and District Community Council will pursue the possibility of opening the beach toilets by undertaking a feasibility study looking at likely costs and income from users.
At last night’s meeting, members heard from Brian Menzies who was part of a small team looking at the project. They have already had a meeting with Aberdeenshire Council area manager Tim Stephen.
He said: ”The toilet provision in our view is wholly unsatisfactory. I found guidance about toilet provision in towns and Stonehaven’s is inadequate.
”We are not committed to anything, we are just looking for more information.”
Rachel Frame said they had been advised by the Council the operating cost of the block was £13,500 per annum – but she did not think this included consumables such as toilet tissue and cleaning materials.
Chair David Lawman said he was happy to accept the Council’s figures which they had arrived at after a year of operation.
”If there was a system put in place to involve charging, there is a scenario where this would wash its face and could be profitable,” he said.
”If we were to do it, we might like to do it on a year’s trial basis.”
He added: ”There might be grant funds available to pay for some of the capital costs and maybe also the running costs.”
Rachel Frame said the Council were also open to investigating the possibility of a motor home cassette disposal system.
And Mr Menzies asked for support from his colleagues to undertake a feasibility study to take things forward to the next stage.
Daniel Veltman summed up the mood of the meeting.
He said: ”I think some of these ideas are good. We do need to open the beach toilets, so I would support the process going forward.”
