Should a petition contain 500 signatures or more it will be scheduled for debate at the next meeting of the appropriate Area Constituency Committee.
The following petition has exceeded 500 signatures, to date 1490, and, as such, will be considered at today’s meeting:-
“Free access to toilets in Filey, pending a full review and consultation for the administrative district”
At the meeting the petition organiser will be given five minutes to present the petition and an officer of the Council will provide a response. The petition will then be discussed by councillors for a maximum of 15 minutes.
A decision on how to respond to the petition will be agreed at the meeting. Councillors may decide:
• to take the action the petition requests
• not to take the action requested for reasons put forward in the debate
• to commission further investigation into the matter.
The petition organiser will receive written confirmation of the decision and the decision will be recorded in the minutes of the meeting, published on our website.
Minutes:
Should a petition contain 500 signatures or more a debate
would be scheduled at the next meeting of the appropriate Area Constituency
Committee.
The following petition had exceeded 500 signatures, and, as
such, was considered at today’s meeting:
“Free access to toilets in Filey, pending a full review and
consultation for the administrative district”
At the meeting the petition organiser, Jonathan Cairns, was
given five minutes to present the petition and Harry Briggs, an officer of the
Council, provided a written response read out by the Clerk. The petition was
then discussed by councillors for a maximum of 15 minutes.
A decision on how to respond to the petition would be agreed
at the meeting. Councillors may decide:
•
to take the action the petition requests
·
• not to take the action requested for reasons put
forward in the debate
•
to commission further investigation into the
matter.
The petition organiser would receive written confirmation of
the decision and the decision
would be recorded in the minutes of the meeting, published
on the Council’s website.
Mr Cairns outlined
the following:
“As of 13th June
2023, the petition has 1531 supporters. These have been gathered informally and
without mass collecting. As an example one person on Coble Landing in late May collected 40
signatures in less than 35 minutes.
There has been 99.9%
support for the Petition. All traders along the front have supported this. It is not just about Coble Landing,
it is for Barry Robson who was left to fend for himself when the previous year
work overran by 3 months. It is also for
Steve Newton and his employees at Royal Parade, who wonder if their business
will be decimated when Royal Parade toilets are dealt with.
The harsh lesson is
much better planning and organisation is needed. Builders need to have supplies before
committing to work. Planning permission can’t be left to work out in January or
February. Filey Town Council should be given more than 8 hours to look at
plans. Local disability groups should be consulted on new design, and access.
All these actions
affect people’s businesses and livelihoods. They affect hundreds and thousands
of visitors. Filey deserves better service.
A written apology should be made to Mr Robson, and all those on Coble
Landing for the delay and impact on their businesses. This delay was avoidable.
There is no excuse
for lack of signage, and websites still saying toilets are open. No excuse for
poor directions, giving incorrect street address. Correct signage was promised to the planning
committee on 20th April 2023.
1.
Temporary
toilets were rejected by Mr Battersby, I could not persuade this committee to
meet as a group of 3 ahead of 16th June 2023.
2.
A head
height shower has been promised (email from Mr Battersby). Maintenance report
for last year showed 4 blockages due to sand.
Is there a sand trap in this design?
3.
The
petition has identified some very important compliance issues with building
regulations for disability aspects of the prefabricated block. Despite a
detailed letter of 8th May 2023, and a data protection request, no plans
showing amended access or barriers have been provided. Majority of the doors
open onto the road.
4.
I
acknowledge that a Teams meeting took place with Mr Battersby and Mr Briggs on
1st June 2023, for which I am grateful.
5.
Unresolved
is the issue of a safety barrier, the capacity of the toilets has been reduced
from 16 units to 7. The doors open onto a busy road. A similar set of cubicles
in Scarborough already attracts queues of 25 people on a regular basis. See
photograph.
6.
The
request is for all toilets blocks to be open on the front all year round. There
may be an overlap here with charging policy.
7.
In
addition to the 1523 supporters for this Petition, over 700 Filey residents
were consulted for Vision for Filey, at a consultancy cost of £30,000 plus.
Those residents advocated more opening for toilets. See page references 27, 51
and 53 in the
Vision for Filey
document.
8.
Access
to toilets is not just about a bottom-line cost saving. People’s health and
wellbeing depend on access. Especially to those who are elderly and those with
a disability.Post covid more
people venture out, seeking fresh air and exercise.
9.
My
Petition specifically says not to impose charges until there has been a review.
The issue is how to fund the cost? This request is on a par with consultation
that has taken place over the policy to charge or not for garden collection
bins in Selby.
10.
It is
Wednesbury unreasonable to charge Filey residents and visitors and businesses
to pay for toilets, until there has been a proper review and consultation. So please put charging on hold until a policy
decision has been made.
Other options:
- take money from
car park fees?
- charge in summer time only?
- Not to charge business who pay rent, and rely
on the toilets
- residents discount
- lower charge 20
pence
- what impact will
charging have on visitor numbers.
Filey is, for
example, very different to Scarborough, the cafes and kiosks are not
overburdened with toilet facilities
- surely implied a
business paying rent, has worked on rent being at level that includes access to
toilets.
- ask Bridlington
how their policy works Ie free entry
Why was the toilet
capacity reduced by 55% with no consultation?
How many people will
be on the beach in July, August, September? Is there sufficient capacity with
just 7 cubicles? - who is going to monitor this?
What happens when it
rains? - no shelter
Why are there no
green climate adaptations? Solar panels, and water collection?
Opening times - this
committee should direct please there should be consultation.
Vision for Filey -
Mr Cairns outlined various paragraphs relevant to the provision of local public
toilets from this document
“
basically saying toilets
are essential for elderly and visitors, and should be open longer “
Yet SBC still shut
them - why?
This is a really
important document to help set policy for public toilets, my request is that
North Yorkshire Council appoint someone to read this policy document to help
set policy going forward. I am not expecting Councillors to read this for the
meeting on 16th June 2023.
The Provision of
Public Toilets
He outlined relevant
paragraphs from this document
plus written evidence from Visit Britain
Items on the
petition, not yet dealt with:-
Free access to
toilets pending review and consultation
Plus
:
Provision of
footbath
Provision of safety
barrier
More flexible
opening hours for Filey toilets
Mr Bill Massey had
requested that he provide a question/statement in relation to this matter and
was invited, by the Chair, to do this at this stage. Mr Massey outlined his
support of the issues set out by the petitioner and asked that the new
facilities be provided free of charge, be better than the previous ones and be
open all year round. He also asked for reconsideration of the placement of a
barrier at Coble Landing to address safety concerns.
Harry Briggs,
Interim Head of Service – Operations, Transport and Countryside (SCA),
submitted the following response to the petition, which was read out by the
Clerk due to a technical failure preventing Mr Briggs from accessing the
meeting remotely:
“Thank you for the
opportunity to respond to the ePetition filed by Mr
Jonathan Cairns. Both Karl Battersby as Director and I have met with Mr Cairns
and exchanged extensive communications on public convenience provision in Filey
and the wider County. We have also met as a management team and discussed the
issues raised in the petition and I am pleased to provide the following service
response.
In terms of
background; in October 2022 in dialogue with Filey Town Council,
Scarborough Borough
Council agreed to fund improvement works to two public
conveniences in the
town – Filey Ravine and Filey Country Park. During dialogue with the Town
Council and Borough Councillors, it was agreed to demolish both facilities and replace
with two new identical purpose built modular
buildings. The design and specification was drawn up
in partnership with the Town Council and the former Borough Council Portfolio
Holder, this included the inclusion of pay on entry technology.
The block at Filey
Ravine, lies within the Towns’ Conservation area, so the demolition required
full planning consent, regrettably this had a significant impact on the project
timeline.
Officers have
continued to work hard to deliver the project and we anticipate both
facilities to be
open to the public by Sunday 25th June 2023.
Petition point 1.
Provide temporary toilets for Coble Landing, whilst the new toilets are being demolished
and replaced.
Service response –
Officers have worked
on sourcing temporary provision while the improvement works take place.
Unfortunately unlike at Country Park, identifying a suitable location near to
Filey Ravine with access to services and which does not impact on adjacent
businesses has not been possible. Approximately 270m away from the former
facilities at Filey Ravine is a newly refurbished facility complete with
disabled provision, in recognition of the situation, the entry fee here was
waived until the improvement scheme at Ravine is
complete.
Petition point 2. To
provide free access at the point of entry to all toilet facilities in Filey, so
as to be compatible with the Thirsk and Malton Area, in which Filey is now
based.
Service response –
North Yorkshire Council, Environmental Services, Racecourse Lane, Northallerton,
DL7 8AD.The provision of public conveniences is a non-statutory service, as
such the former Borough Council had a longstanding policy of implementing pay
on entry technology where appropriate, to offset the cost of operating the
service. Filey already has both free and chargeable facilities and this will
continue. It is important to note that free provision continues to be offered
to disabled users through the National Radar toilet access scheme. As the new
management team we recognise that public conveniences
is one of many areas of Council provision that varies across the County,
following Local Government Reorganisation. A programme of work to review
provision is due to start over the coming months to agree a new consistent
approach to the service, this will involve the role of pay-on-entry technology
and a strategic review of the network.
Petition point 3. To
ensure that all toilet facilities are open all year round (allowing for reduced
hours in winter)
Service response –
The former Borough
Council operated a reduced network of sites over winter when demand was at its’
lowest. Our public conveniences see significant seasonal change in usage, so
opening, closing and cleaning toilets with few, if any users, is operationally inefficient.
The vast majority of our sites are also unheated making the sites susceptible to
damage from freezing pipework, more so if there is little water demand. To open
all facilities all year will require budget growth, at this stage we cannot
commit to this. We can however commit to the all year
round opening of Filey Ravine, for the foreseeablefuture.
Petition point 4. To
ask the council to reinstate the footbath at the side of Ravine toilets, and to
ensure a suitable safety barrier is installed
Service response –
As part of the
specification drawn up with Town and former Borough Councillors the scheme
includes a foot and full height external shower. Officers have worked
extensively with colleagues in Highways to agree the final layout following the
small amount of pathway regrading necessary. Following the re-profiling of the
pavement the need for a barrier has been removed.
Petition point 5. To
have flexible opening hours for the Ravine toilets in the month of December to
support the Festive event.
Service response – The
new facilities incorporate automated opening/closing technology and can be configured
to open a reduced number of cubicles in the off season. Using this technology it is the intention to operate Ravine toilets as
an all year facility.
I trust the above
information is of use to the Chair and I welcome the thoughts of the Committee
in due course.”
Members debated the
details provided and the following issues were highlighted: -
·
It was
clarified that the ACC had no power to implement any of the suggested actions
outlined in the petition but could recommend that consideration be given to
issues raised by the Committee to the Authority’s Executive.
·
A Member
emphasised that the new toilets were not placed in just the Thirsk and Malton
area but were in North Yorkshire, therefore, comparing these solely to other
facilities in the ACC area was inappropriate. She stated that a review of all
facilities would be taking place in the near future to ensure that they all
operated on a consistent basis throughout North Yorkshire.
·
A Member
suggested that the issues around safety raised by the petitioner should be
referred to the Executive for further investigation, particularly in relation
to health and safety concerns and DDA compliance.
·
It was
stated that consideration of the issues raised should be welcomed by the
Committee as it provided an opportunity to refer concerns to the Executive in
respect of safety, winter opening, and charges being imposed. The Member
highlighting this raised particular concerns regarding the safety of the
toilets coming off the beach and the need for a barrier there.
·
A
Member, also a Filey Town Councillor, welcomed the news regarding the
forthcoming opening of the new toilets, following extensive work carried out in
partnership with the Town Council. She noted that the introduction of charging
for the use of the toilets had been implemented by a Filey Councillor. She
suggested that the Committee took this opportunity to ensure that a review of
public toilet provision throughout North Yorkshire took place to determine a
common policy for all areas, through the Executive. The Chair recognised the
requirement for a consistent approach and outlined how a review would be
undertaken shortly to implement this.
·
A Member
noted that the issues relating to the safety of the newly provided toilets in
Filey lay with Highways and they would determine whether they were safe and
legal in relation to their proximity to the road.
·
It was
stated that an appropriate, consistent policy for public toilets throughout
North Yorkshire was being developed, which would take account of charges and
opening times, but in the interim the Committee could request the Executive to
consider the health and safety concerns raised in respect of the new facilities
in Filey and request an indication from the Executive of the likely timeline
for the introduction of a consistent policy throughout North Yorkshire for the
provision of public toilets.
·
The
local Councillor for Filey stated that he had listened to the debate with
interest. He noted the large numbers of local people that had signed the
petition and also the large number of visitors that were attracted to Filey. He recognised the need for a consistent
approach throughout North Yorkshire and welcomed the opportunity to forward the
issues of concern to the Executive. He suggested, however, that until the
review had been carried out the new toilet facilities in Filey should be
provided free of charge, with particular concerns for the wellbeing of elderly
people, who were less likely to venture out should there be no free toilet
facilities available. He considered that this matter should be submitted to the
Executive alongside the other issues suggested. In response to this another
Member stated that it was difficult for the Committee to make a judgement on
the pricing issue without the full details being available, with a further
Member stating that a full history of the situation being required for an
informed decision on this to take place. Whilst supportive of the suggestion a
Member considered that the issue of charging could have implications for all
other public toilets in North Yorkshire should there be agreement not to charge
for the Filey facilities, ahead of the review. It was noted that prior to the
provision of the new facilities the toilets had been free, although
subsequently there had been an agreement that had seen the operation and
charging for such facilities been devolved to the Town and Parish Councils.
·
Members
undertook a vote on the issues to be referred to the Executive in relation to
the petition with the matter of charging included. This was defeated.
Resolved
that it be recommended to the Executive –
(i) That a response to the issues raised on
Filey Toilets in relation to Health and Safety requirements and compliance with
the Disability Discrimination Act be provided
(ii) That
an indicative timeline in respect of the proposed county wide review of public
conveniences be published as soon as possible.