A PETITION of more than 1,000 signatures calling for Tavistock’s bus station toilets to be reopened has been handed over to West Devon Borough Council for consideration.

Wendy Norman, who runs the bus station kiosk, started the petition after the toilets were closed on April 1 as part of West Devon Borough Council’s borough-wide devolvement of responsibility of toilet facilities to town and parish councils and closure of those that weren’t taken over.

Wendy started the petition after seeing the problems it was causing for visitors, bus passengers and bus drivers, who were being directed to the toilets in Bedford car park and in just over four weeks has had 1,011 people sign it.

On Tuesday, she handed it over to West Devon borough councillor Jeff Moody in the presence of other concerned community members and Tavistock town councillors.

Wendy said: ‘We’ve got quite a lot of signatures considering its only been a month, so I thought that was quite a good result. I’m hoping the council will reopen all three toilets, not just the one, because that’s what we need. They’ve got to do something — people are coming into the kiosk and moaning but it’s got nothing to do with me.’

After receiving the petition, Cllr Moody said: ‘I realise there has been a lot of concern about this issue and I have seen myself an elderly person having to walk more than 100 yards to the Bedford car park toilets instead, so it would be good to have a positive discussion about this.

‘I will present the petition to the mayor at the council’s annual meeting on May 21 and understand it will then be put on the agenda for the next full council meeting.

‘We need to sit down and look at possible alternatives for this. It is looking encouraging as I believe there is someone interested in taking over the lease and in the meantime there are organisations willing to help keep them open. There have been lots of people from the community that have said they would help where necessary.’

Tavistock Town Council agreed to take on the responsibility of the two other public toilets in the town — in the Bedford and Guildhall car parks — but due to financial restraints was unable to take over all three.

Tavistock town councillor Lesley Crawford said: ‘Tavistock Town Council talked about it at length and we did look at whether other parts of the community may be able to take them on. We were very saddened at the time that West Devon decided to close them in the end. Now, bus drivers are having to take five or ten minutes out to walk to the Bedford car park toilets which is affecting the bus timetable. The knock-on effect is phenomenal, especially for people who have hospital appointments or similar.’