DARTMOOR Forest Parish councillors unanimously rejected plans to take over Princetown’s public toilets, calling it an ‘unfair and unrealistic’ request from West Devon Borough Council.

In a bid to save £50,000 from its budget, West Devon Borough Council (WDBC) asked parish and town councils across the borough to take over responsibility for public toilets or see them close.

At a recent meeting of Dartmoor Forest Parish Council, members rejected WDBC’s proposal for the parish council to increase its financial contribution to the public toilets in Princetown by 75%, increasing to 100% over the next three years or take on full responsibility for their running.

For several years Dartmoor Forest Parish Council has made significant donations to help fund the public toilets in Princetown. The parish council has been paying West Devon Borough Council approximately £3,500 each year to ensure the toilets were cleaned and maintained.

The parish council said this arrangement was unique in West Devon and no other parish council had been making donations of this level to fund public toilets. Councillors were therefore surprised and disappointed at WDBC’s proposal to increase this contribution to almost £20,000 each year.

At its meeting, the parish council voted unanimously to reject this proposal and the request for the parish council to take over the lease, maintainance and cleaning of the toilets — although there was some support for the council to take over the toilets but reduce opening hours in winter. The parish council had called upon the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) to run the toilets, which are based in the car park next to the national park visitor centre and are owned by the national park and leased to WDBC. However, this had been rejected by DNPA.

Parish councillor Paul Turnbull said: ‘It is unfair and unrealistic to expect a small community to have to pay so much for a facility that should be funded by the borough council or national park. If WDBC had managed this properly and other parish councils had been making contributions, we would not be in this mess. Princetown is not a rich, affluent village and therefore to expect households to contribute an extra £40 to £50 a year to pay for a facility used by visitors to the national park is not acceptable.’

Concern was also raised that this increase would be on top of other increases that householders would be expected to pay for 2019’s council tax.

Parish councillor Wendy Stones said: ‘The cost for Devon and Cornwall Police will increase by up to £24 each year; it is also expected that the council tax requested by the borough council, county council and fire service will also increase. We are therefore concerned that families will not be able to afford this.’

Although WDBC wanted to increase the contribution to almost £20,000 each year, the parish council has offered to continue to pay £3,500 each year, as it has done in previous years.

Cllr Turnbull added: ‘The parish council felt that as a gesture of goodwill and compromise we are asking West Devon to look at this again and keep the public toilets open. We will continue to make a significant donation towards their costs.’