Issue - meetings

Decision:

(1)   That the closure of up to five of the Council’s public conveniences be approved in principle.

(2)   That public convenience grants be withdrawn from Ash and Shere Parish Councils.

(3)   That, subject to a review of responses from a public consultation, the Head of Operational and Technical Services, in consultation with the Lead Councillor for Environment, be authorised to determine which public conveniences should be closed in March 2022.

Reason:

To achieve £65,000 per annum savings in the public conveniences budget starting in the 2022/23 financial year.

Other options considered and rejected by the Executive:

Option 1 – complete closure of services

Option 5 – do nothing

Option 6 – charge for some of the services

Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:

None.

The Executive considered a report that contributed to the Council’s medium term review of spending. The Lead Councillor for Environment introduced the report.

The Council was seeking to reduce revenue spend in the light of challenging financial circumstances.  The process of arriving at the recommendations in the report had included two meetings of the Service Delivery Executive Advisory Board (EAB) most recently on 4 November 2021. Alongside the proposed withdrawal of grant funding from Ash and Shere Parish Councils (£14,040), it was anticipated that there would be limited closures to be undertaken following consultation with the public. The deletion of two staff posts would result in one voluntary departure and the other being transferred to another role in the Waste Team.

The Lead Councillor for the Environment acknowledged the report was putting some difficult decisions before the Executive, but these were discretionary services and stressed the financial position of the Council.

Mr David Beaman, Chairman of the South West Surrey Disability and Empowerment Network addressed the meeting speaking on behalf of disabled residents and expressed concern about the reduction of the service within the community and the timescale of the closures. It was suggested that the withdrawal of services would also negatively impact residents with young children and the elderly. Mr Beaman was also a Waverley Borough Councillor and a Farnham Town Councillor and whilst recognising the financial pressures on local government asked if there might have been revenue savings made elsewhere – such as off-street car parking charging, consideration of the introduction of charging for public conveniences or contracting out. There was a final request that closures be staggered and not implemented at the same time to reduce the impact on the community.

Councillor Ramsey Nagaty had chaired the meeting of the EAB held on 4 November and was present to comment. The EAB had suggested closer collaboration between parties to retain services such as that between the Cricket Club and the café on Woodbridge Road. Farnham Road Car Park facilities were described as requiring updating and if that were not possible then closure was suggested. Overall, despite concerns for the very young and the elderly, the EAB had agreed with the recommendations. Finally, it was suggested that some capital investment to refurbish the two parish facilities would be welcomed by the parish councils before the funding was withdrawn.

It was noted that as a part of the consultation process when determining which of the conveniences would be subject to closure, businesses local to the site might be interested in advertising their facilities as available nearby. There would also be discussions with local businesses with a view to taking over the running of the facilities themselves such as the café on Woodbridge Road.

The installation of charging meters would in itself be costly and then the payback for the investment would create a time lapse. Coupled with the reduction footfall as a result of introducing charging indicated the practice would not help the Councils revenue account in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53

The EAB considered a report regarding a review which sought to explore Options 3 and 4 of the approved mandate in respect of public conveniences (PCs).  Option 3 consisted of the potential discontinuation of grant funding totalling £14,000 paid by this Council to Ash and Shere Parish Councils towards the operation of their toilet facilities.  Option 4 focused on a mixed approach of the closure or passing on to other organisations of a limited number of toilets owned by the Council aligned with a redistribution of work.  The Council aimed to achieve a revenue savings target of £65,000 per annum and reduce future capital investments in respect of refurbishments of PCs.  The report emphasised that the Council had no legal duty to provide PCs which were a discretionary service.

The Budget Survey 2021, untaken by SMSR Research, had invited residents to consider Council services in terms of importance, priority and spending.  The Survey found that public facilities ranked 9^th for all 3 categories, out of the 12 noted services provided by the Council.

In terms of costings, the report outlined all types of current expenditure associated with the PCs which totalled £293,000.  The £65,000 savings target would largely result from making one of the toilet cleaner roles redundant and offering redeployment to a new role avoiding redundancy costs.  It was envisaged that the closure or passing on of 4 of the highest cost toilet facilities from the long list of 8 PCs included in the report would be required to reduce the current toilet cleaning workload to enable the deletion of one cleaner post and would achieve expenditure savings of £51,000.

The report recommended that, in order to achieve the necessary expenditure savings the Council specified a preference for the closure or passing to another organisation of the PCs at Allen House, Bedford Road, Ripley and Woodbridge Road which would allow the Council to reduce the total workload sufficiently to make one of the toilet cleaner roles redundant.  The discontinuation of grant funding to Ash and Shere Parish Councils was also recommended.  Following consideration by the Executive in early January, the proposals would be subject to a public consultation commencing in mid January after which, depending upon the results, the final arrangements would be submitted to the Corporate Management Team for approval with a view to implementation by the end of the current financial year in order to realise the savings in the following financial year.

Associated risks, Equality Impact Assessments, external stakeholders, and the next steps and milestones were also addressed in the report.

Ripley, Ash and Send Parish Councils had been consulted in respect of the proposals and the responses from Ripley and Send Parish Councils were appended to the report.  Subsequent to the publication of the agenda, a response from Ash Parish Council had also been received.  Ash had highlighted that, amongst others, its PCs served many business operatives including Council staff, Post Office employees and delivery drivers in addition to children utilising the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43