Councils won't spend a penny

Public toilet: locked shut, photo by Ewan Munro (Creative Commons) (Click to enlarge)

A Labour councillor responsible for closing all his area's public toilets has been caught relieving himself on the street.

Police fined South Lanarkshire deputy leader Jackie Burns for urinating in Hamilton town centre on 7 November. Burns defended closing all the Scottish council's public lavatories in May, blaming Ł22 million of central cuts.

His authority has nearly Ł50 million in usable reserves out of a total Ł1 billion reserve fund. It could use these, along with borrowing powers, to buy time to build a campaign to win that money back.

Medieval

This would defend vital jobs and services - and prevent people caught short from revisiting the medieval system of open sewers.

Camden council in north London plans to follow suit. The Labour authority proposes closing some public conveniences and charging for the remainder.

The total value? Ł250,000. That's one third of one percent of Camden's planned Ł75 million cuts.

Quite the saving.

Councillor Merik Apak, the borough's environment chief, said: "It all adds up." When it comes to heaping misery on ordinary people - whether through job cuts or the basic indignity of not having a toilet - it certainly does.

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