New toilets had back to front disabled cubicle and lacked ventilation and fire safety

THE troubled new public toilets in Wellington town centre reopened on Tuesday (October 27) after a week’s closure to unblock a drain.

The £220,000 toilets caused embarrassment for the town council with their closure last week coming just eight days after they were opened following a wait of nearly four years.

Tuesday’s reopening coincided with the release of details of faults which had kept the conveniences closed for 11 weeks after they were delivered in July.

Council chief executive Dave Farrow said 80 faults were found, including clear glass in the windows of doors instead of frosted.

The accessible toilet design was reversed, meaning wheelchair users wanting to wash their hands had to sit on the toilet.

Other issues included:

• Ventilation strips not installed

• Missing fire prevention measures

• Generally poor quality of finish

• The wrong canopy was installed, and installed badly

Mr Farrow in a letter to manufacturer Danfo UK Ltd said there had been a failure to carry out adequate quality assurance and compliance checks before the unit left the factory.

He said it was particularly concerning because the company had an extra five weeks to work on the building when the original June delivery date was cancelled.

Mr Farrow said the prolonged closure of the conveniences left the council in the embarrassing position of having to hire portable toilets and place them next to the new block for carnival night at the end of September, one of the town’s busiest evenings of the year.

He said: “I therefore request a full written response explaining why the unit was delivered with such a significant number of defects, why many of the more substantial of those defects were not identified before dispatch, especially given the additional time Danfo had to complete the work, and why it took approximately two months to complete the remedial work.”