Bath & North East Somerset Council has announced that the Ashton Way toilet block in Keynsham is to reopen, more than seven years after it closed as part of a cost-cutting exercise.
The refurbishment is expected to be completed this spring. Funding of £12,000 has been agreed to provide a disability-compliant facility.
Cllr Jess David, B&NES Cabinet assistant for Neighbourhood Services, said the refurbishment was another step in the council’s overall investment into modern, accessible public toilet provision in the district.
The Ashton Way block closed in January 2015 when facilities became available at the One Stop Shop/Library, built as part of the Civic Centre redevelopment. Those toilets are only available during opening hours, as are the ones at Keynsham Leisure Centre.
Last August we reported that a campaign to reopen the Ashton Way toilets had been started by local councillors Andy Wait and Hal MacFie, with hundreds of people signing the petition. The councillors said the most common complaint they had received since being elected more than two years previously had been about the town’s lack of toilet facilities.
They have introduced a toilet scheme in which four town centre businesses – Temple Street Canteen, The Ship, Grounded and Café Dahlia – allow people to use their toilets for free when they’re open.
The need for public toilets in Keynsham has also been raised on our Letters page.
Thank you for reading this. The Week In has been publishing local news free of charge for the last 12 years. That won’t change in the future but we are changing the way we run our business. Until now, we have been solely dependent on advertising revenue but we have now set up a cooperative to oversee the future development of the publication. The Week In Community Ltd is a community benefit society, owned not by shareholders but individual members. By becoming a member at £3 a month you will not only be contributing to the future of local interest journalism but will also have a say in the future of the organisation. To find out more, click on the button on the right of the banner at the top of this page if you are on our website or select Premium Membership in My Profile on the app.
