Saundersfoot Community Council will agree to accept financial responsibility to ensure that public toilets situated at Wiseman’s Bridge will remain open for 2023-24, if the Local Authority goes down the route of closing conveniences as part of its budget balancing exercise.

At this month’s meeting, members were asked to consider a request from Pembrokeshire County Council regarding the public toilets at Wisemans Bridge - for the Community Council to possibly accept an asset transfer from the Local Authority, with the estimated annual cost for the running of such, being in the region of £13,128, which includes - cleaning, cesspit, consumables, responsive repairs, utilities, vehicles, management charge and overheads.

In a report that came before members of the Community Council last month, County Councillor for the village’s North ward, Cllr Alec Cormack, who is also PCC’s cabinet member for corporate finance, informed members, that the process of setting a budget for 2023-24 was underway, with estimated savings of £28 million necessary to balance the budget next year.

He explained that closing or suspending public toilets across Pembrokeshire was one of the measures being considered by the Local Authority as part of discussions to balance the budget.

“This is a discretionary service provided by the Council, which means the Council has no mandatory obligation to provide this service, however as a holiday destination we have always been proud of having the largest number of public toilets per person in the country,” explained Cllr Cormack.

“Where PCC toilets are located in/near a PCC car park, the car park revenue has been used to support the public toilets. Recently PCC entered into discussions with the National Park about them entering a similar arrangement to subsidise the cost of the PCC toilets in/near their own car parks. Unfortunately no agreement was reached.

“This means that in the forthcoming public consultation on the budget, one of the measures considered is closing, or at least suspending public toilets. This does not mean that public toilets will close, just that it is one of the measures that County Councillors may consider in March,” he added.

Following consideration of the possible impact on the community, should the public toilets at Wiseman’s Bridge be closed due to financial constraints, it was proposed and seconded that Saundersfoot Community Council, should the necessity of such be confirmed by PCC following the appropriate finance meeting, accept the financial responsibility only and agree to pay PCC £13,128 to ensure the public toilets remain open for 2023-24. Councillors all voted in favour.

Further consideration will also be given by the Community Council to request financial contributions from neighbouring Town and Community Councils or businesses in close proximity to the location of the toilets.