CLEANING of the much-maligned Longforth Road public toilets in Wellington is being stepped-up after concerns were raised by a councillor that the job was not being done properly.

Wellington Town Council took ownership of the toilets in 2017 to prevent them being closed by the old Taunton Deane Borough Council and has since been maintaining them at a cost of around £20,000 a year - although they have been a continual headache for the authority with a never-ending stream of problems involving operational failures and anti-social behaviour.

Town clerk Dave Farrow reiterated in his monthly report to town councillors on September 6 that “twice daily cleans are being undertaken by ID Verde” at the Longforth Road toilets.

But Cllr Marcus Barr has told the WWN that he is not sure whether those twice daily cleans are being properly carried out at the toilets which the council has kept open through much of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Checks in the past few weeks by Cllr Barr have raised alarm bells over whether or not the cleaning regime was being fully administered. He discovered toilet paper and soap had been running out and rubbish was not being removed for days at a time.

Cllr Barr told the WWN that he thinks the council needs to make investigations to see what the actual situation was with the cleaning routine to make sure the authority was getting value for its money.

“I believe this is not the first time since we took over the toilets in Longforth Road that we’ve had this issue,” he said.

Due to difficulties obtaining spare parts only two of the five cubicles at the toilet block have been in use for the past few years.

The council has been looking at plans to redesign the layout of the block in the hope that part of it could be used to generate a commercial income.

Cllr Barr, who previously saved the town around £20,000 a year by pushing through changes to the way Christmas lights were rented and installed, wants the toilet block to be self-financing.

“If we are clever enough then we should be able to find a business that wants to operate from the site and will pay rent to do so, as happens in many other towns,” he said.

“It is nicely located next to the town centre and right opposite the coach park where in normal times hundreds of visitors a day would be stopping off and having a stroll around.”

Town clerk Mr Farrow told the WWN that he had been made aware of concerns in relation to the cleanliness of the Longforth Road toilets.

“I have met with the contractor having had concerns recently raised and we’ve put in place arrangements to improve the monitoring of the quality and amount of cleaning taking place,” he said.

“This includes increased visits from both the company and us at the town council to quality assure the work. We are also putting in place a signing system so that each time the toilets are cleaned the cleaners will sign giving the date and time the cleaning took place.

“The arrangement is that the toilets that are in use are cleaned twice a day.”

Mr Farrow added: “Clearly things might happen in between cleans which is unfortunate. If anyone has any concerns they can contact the town council office and we in turn will contact the contractors to see if an additional clean can be done.”

The town clerk has continued discussions with Healthmatic about the “remodelling” of the toilet block to make them more efficient and cost-effective and he told members of the council’s policy and resources committee on August 11 that more work was needed on the plans for storage areas and to see if Changing Places facilities could be included.

Changing Places toilets are cubicles with extra room space needed by those people with a disability to allow them to use a public loo safely and comfortably.

Mr Farrow has been asked to investigate whether a Changing Places facility is needed within the town.