TOWN councillors are looking at spending up to £165,000 on improving Wellington’s public toilets and a sports pavilion.

The news comes as long-awaited work to replace demolished toilets in Longforth Road was due to start on Monday (February 9).

On Monday evening, councillors will consider plans to upgrade toilets in North Street car park and Wellington Park, as well as the pavilion in Wellington Recreation Ground, which faced closure without action.

They were taken over by the town council last year from financially-stricken Somerset Council, which had not invested in them ‘for a number of years’.

Town council facilities manager Annette Kirk said: “The facilities are outdated and also suffer a high level of vandalism.

“The toilets and pavilion in the park and recreation ground are not fit for purpose and do not offer an appropriate level of safeguarding protection.

“The toilets in North Street are dated and there are issues with vandalism leading to some being closed on a regular basis

“There have been a number of roof leaks at the pavilion and there is currently no felt under the roof tiles.”

Ms Kirk said there were two options for the redesigning the recreation ground pavilion, which both addressed required maintenance issues and achieved the safeguarding needed now the facility was used by all genders and ages, often simultaneously.

She said both options provided two unisex accessible toilets which would serve the football pitches, play area, and the planned new pump track.

There were also two options for the park toilets redesign, which both addressed required maintenance and provided individual unisex toilets and an enlarged storage area.

Ms Kirk said it was proposed to change the North Street toilet doors to allow for a timed access locking system and to also improve the appearance of the block.

The internal walls would be lined with a washable material to allow easy cleaning, and the wash hand units would be removed and replaced with basins and hand dryers.

Ms Kirk said the North Street works could proceed as one project, taking the whole block out of use, or one or two toilets could be worked on at a time so the project was phased over two to three years, which would leave a working toilet at all times.

Depending on the options chosen by councillors, the total cost f the work would be between £146,100 and £165,850.

Ms Kirk said the council’s capital reserve fund stood at £50,000, which would require the work to be carried out over a number of years, unless the budget was increased.

A priority order could be the park toilets this year at between £42,350 and £54,350, the recreation ground pavilion in 2027-28 at between £63,850 and £68,850, and North Street toilets in 2028-29 with the cost estimated at £6,650 per cubicle, or between £39,900 and £42,650, the higher figure including service room fob access.

Ms Kirk said if grant funding could be found then the programme could be brought forward.