APPROVAL has been granted to demolish the Guildhall toilets in Tavistock and rebuild them, whether or not a redevelopment scheme for the area goes ahead. West Devon Borough Council?s environment and community committee agreed on Tuesday that new toilet facilities should be provided in order to meet the needs of local residents and tourists. A new build was favoured more than a refurbishment of the existing toilets, although the scheme is likely to cost an extra £20,000. The borough?s community director of services David Inman told the committee a new toilet block would give considerably more scope for a long-term new layout of the Guildhall area. There are plans to create a visitors/interpretation centre on the site as part of the Tamar Mining Heritage Project, for which a £5.8-million funding package was announced recently. West Devon Council has already set aside £100,000 for the toilets with around £50,000 committed from Tavistock Town Council. The scheme has been costed at between £140,000 and £160,000. Mr Inman said a rather grandiose scheme was planned for the Guildhall area and if the toilet block remained and was upgraded a lot of the outcomes that were being sought would be impaired. He said a new toilet block could blend with the rest of the scheme but the two things could be on potentially different time frames. Only the next months would tell if this was the case. While a few weeks might not be important, the existing toilets were in a very poor state and a rebuild could not be delayed. ?The toilets are desperately needed and we will have to build the new block regardless of anything else that happens,? added Mr Inman. ?If we go ahead, the rest of the plans will have to work around it.? A small floor area would create capacity for some form of building, subject to planning permission, adjacent to the toilet for possible commercial use, he said. Cllr Ted Sherrell, who represents Tavistock, stressed the importance of replacing the toilets as soon as possible once the existing building was demolished.
