1.1     The provision and accessibility of toilets across the Borough has been the subject of concern among residents recently.

1.2     The location of toilets, both council run and privately provided but accessible for the public, is not widely known. While information about Council toilets is available on the https://maidstone.gov.uk/home/primary-services/community-support/tier-2-additional-areas/public-toilets and there are eight hard signs and finger signs dotted around the town centre promoting the Community Toilet Scheme, however the toilets are not signposted on the main boards in the town centre and the current signposts are easily missed including one that points to a closed facility (see attached photos in Appendix 1).

1.3     There have been concerns about the state of council owned toilets leading to one facility being proposed to transfer to private hands (there has been no committee discussion about this yet). The Council has six public toilets (Mote Park, Penenden Heath, Claire Park, South Park, Whatman Park and Mid Kent Shopping) the rest are operated by private businesses, parishes or trusts.

1.4     Toilets are cleaned once a day with the new Mote Park toilet permanently manned during opening times.

1.5     Residents haven’t been surveyed on their views on the provision for a number of years.

1.6     There is renovation programme happening this year, but this planned work isn’t a full refurbishment (more of repaint and regrouting). A full refurbishment of toilets the cost will be around £120K each toilet block. Examples of one toilet are shown in Appendix 2 demonstrating a poor state of cleanliness and condition.

1.7     The Health, Housing and Environment Policy Advisory Committee are asked to discuss how the provision of toilets for the public may be improved.

1.8     A report with options based on the discussion by the Housing, Health and Environment Policy Advisory Committee and any other additional information from officers be taken to the Cabinet.