Chichester public toilets to receive first refurbishment in three decades

As well as an overall revamp, work planned for the toilets, in Tower Street, will see the disabled facilities brought up to scratch and all drainage issues resolved.

The money was approved at a meeting of the Cabinet on Tuesday (October 2) and will be used alongside £85,000 already allocated from the Asset Replacement Programme.

The plan is to move the disabled toilets to the front of the building, taking up some of the space in the ladies and allowing access from Tower Street.

The work was described as ‘long overdue’ by councillors, with leader Tony Dignum adding that the disabled toilets were currently ‘not fit for purpose’.

A report put before the cabinet said that the toilets had been used by 289 people per day between June 13 and August 20 – 13,987 in the gents, 4,641 in the ladies and 1,032 in the disabled facility.

Eileen Lintill (Con, Petworth) said: “The report says the usage is high now. I suspect when it’s refurbished the usage will be even higher.

“I for one will never go in there. It’s not very pleasant. I think this is long overdue and the sooner we get on with it the better.”

With the funding approved, the first step will be to use CCTV to investigate how much work will be needed to bring the drainage up to scratch.

Work is not expected to start until 2019. Should it cost lest than expected, the remaining money will be returned to the reserves.