Market Yard toilets to be managed by town council

THE toilets in the Market Yard will become the responsibility of Frome Town Council for one year, on Monday 1st April, after councillors voted to save the facility from being closed as Somerset Council seeks to cut costs.

Councillors unanimously voted to take on the toilets at Frome’s full town council meeting on Wednesday 13th March, ahead of the Frome Independent Market on Sunday 7th April.

At a cost of £24,000, the town council will take on the public conveniences for one year, on the condition that Somerset Council enters into a 25-year lease, with a two-year break clause.

The town council’s clerk, Paul Wynne said the two-year break clause means the authority can pull out of managing the toilets and gives the council ‘stability’ and ‘breathing space’ in order to do the due diligence work, understand the costs involved and engage with the public.

Currently, grounds maintenance company idverde is contracted by Somerset Council to maintain the Market Yard toilets, street cleansing and grass cutting.

Paul Wynne said, “Somerset [Council] has, with the agreement of idverde, ended that bit of contract with idverde, which means Somerset will not be involved in cleaning the toilets unless this council acts here.”

Asking who would be responsible for cleaning the ‘wide’ pavement area outside of the toilets, cllr Mel Usher also questioned whether the council needs to engage with the public over the authority managing them. He said, “Do we need to engage the public, when most of the time the doors show they are engaged?”

The clerk said discussions around maintenance of the area outside of the toilets is ongoing.

‘Prosperous town’

The vote to take on the toilets is among the first services Frome Town Council will be taking over from Somerset Council, after the authority announced a ‘financial emergency’ at the end of last year.

When this was announced, Frome Town Council raised its precept by 29%, a decision, cllr Max Wide described as ‘agonising.’

Now, Somerset Council has avoided declaring a s114 notice by agreeing a balanced budget for 2024/25 at its council meeting on 20th February. This means that commissioners will not be appointed by the government to cut services and assets without Somerset Council approval for 2024/25.

However, this does not mean that Somerset Council’s finances are now settled and acceptable. It is more a holding situation to deliver more significant cuts to services and structural transformation in advance of setting the budget for 2025/26.

To save funds and cut costs, Somerset Council has said it is ending all idverde contracts by June 2025, bringing services in-house, saving between £200,000 and £300,000 a year, if not more, if local councils like Frome step in to take on the services.

Explaining the importance of taking over the public toilets from Somerset Council, cllr Max Wide said, “When we originally discussed this, there was a general feeling that not having toilets in the centre of town would not be good and would inconvenience a lot of people and undermine our tourism offer.”

He also said Frome Town Council had commissioned a consultant, Activists, to help create a prospectus for the town and advise the council on how to get ‘the best deal for Frome.’

He said, “It’s really important that somebody and it needs to be us, I think, is really thinking more constructively about the future and how we create a town which is both less needy and more prosperous.”

During the full town council meeting, councillors also voted to take on the CCTV provision in Frome. Other assets and services are currently in discussion.