MINEHEAD Town Council is planning a bid to take over the town’s five sets of public toilets when the district council walks away from running them next March.

At its meeting on Monday, the town council’s amenities and general purposes committee recommended that a negotiating team should meet with district councillors to thrash out a deal.

This could be presented to the town’s finance committee before going to the full council in October.

The town council’s initiative has been hailed “a victory for common sense” by Minehead Conservation Society vice-chairman Tony White: “I’m delighted to hear this news,” he added.

If successful, the takeover could eventually mean a slight increase in the precept to ratepayers or a payment system for toilet use.

“We’ve been led to believe that, if we are willing to take on the running of the toilets, then the district council will transfer them to us,” Minehead Mayor Cllr Jean Parbrook said.

“It’s something we have to do. We can’t leave a seaside town like Minehead with no public toilets."

Full story in the Free Press