This was sent in to My Turriff by Morag Lightning
There was a public meeting to discuss the future of the running of the toilets in the Haughs on Wednesday 4th May 2016. There will be an appeal going in, with us trying to prove over the summer months that the toilets are used far more regularly than first thought by Aberdeenshire Council. They have agreed to fit a counter to the entrance doors to the toilets, for us to convince them of this fact.
Please could everyone who signed petitions and disagreed with the Councils decision to close the toilets ensure that they use them as much as possible over the summer, to get the numbers as high as possible, in order to back up our appeal. If we don’t use them, we stand to lose them. The only other real alternative is that we, as a community, take on the opening, closing and cleaning of the toilets on a voluntary basis. If we can prove they are used a lot, we may be able to make the Council change its mind.
Please, everyone, help us keep our lavvy’s!
Morag is quite correct in what she says, we need to make sure that we use the facilities so that a true measure of their use and value to the community is measured otherwise there is no chance that any appeal to Aberdeenshire Council for them to keep the toilets open will succeed.
Lots of people got angry about the closure and with the support of the Turriff councillors the toilets were re-opened for the season until the end of September. Yet despite all the public upset about the closure at the meeting last Wednesday there were less then 30 members of the public in attendance.
The community needs to look at coming together and working out a way that the toilets could be kept open in the future without the support of Aberdeenshire Council.