Town Hall boss blames cash cut

Saved: toilets in South End Green

ENVIRONMENT chief John Thane has told public toilet users: “I had no choice but to close down your loos.”
The Highgate Labour councillor has answered criticism of a decision to shut three traditional public conveniences, insisting that he wanted to save the toilets axed in a sweeping programme of cuts.
Cllr Thane told a full council meeting last Monday: “In all the budget discussions I made it clear I was reluctant to agree to these closures and I foresaw some problems. However, the annual cost of operating the three toilets that have recently been closed was over £93,000 a year.”
Toilets at West End Green in West Hampstead, Kentish Town Road in Kentish Town and Highgate High Street have been closed.
Cllr Thane added: “We are having to make substantial savings. These were in the last group of savings that I offered up and if I could have prevented them taking place then I would have done.”
But Lib Dem councillor Keith Moffit said his party had been assured that the West End Green toilet would not close, adding that he was surprised that a 20p-per-visit superloo-style automatic toilet had been installed on the same site.
He told Cllr Thane: “Councillor Flick Rea (Lib Dem leader) and I were given assurances. There was no question of the traditional Victorian toilets being closed. Clearly this has proved that you were being economical with the truth.”
Adrian Oliver, the Green parliamentary candidate standing in Holborn and St Pancras in today’s (Thursday’s) poll, said: “Despite rhetoric to the contrary, we are experiencing stealth cuts to Camden’s public services, which are hitting the most needy and vulnerable in society.
“The disabled, sick and elderly rely on public toilets, and closures tend to trap more of them in their homes for fear of being caught short while out and about.”
But Cllr Thane hinted the tough budget hammered out by the council’s finance chiefs, including treasurer Councillor John Mills, earlier this year had been too harsh on his department.
He said: “The three toilets just closed were the least used in the borough, with less than a quarter of the users of the Camden Town public toilets. The average service cost for these three toilets was over 60p per visit.”
Cllr Thane added that, faced with 12 per cent savings in the environment budget, “we could not justify carrying on with toilets that are infrequently used and that we are not legally required to provide”.
Residents have been told that toilets in South End Green, near Hampstead Heath railway station, are safe from closure.
A Town Hall spokeswoman said: “Before making a decision on which toilets to close earlier this year, we surveyed all the toilets and the three most popular toilets were at Camden Town, Lincoln’s Inn and South End Green. All three will remain open.”
The gents’ toilets in South End Green were featured in Prick Up Your Ears, a 1987 film about 1960s’ playwright Joe Orton which starred Gary Oldman.
Michael Render, chairman of South End Green Residents Association, welcomed the assurance that the toilets would remain open.
He said: “They are wonderful buildings, which are quite famous in the area and very well maintained.”