COUNCILS and campaign groups seeking to take over West Somerset’s public toilets have just four more days to apply for a share of a £80,000-plus fund provided by West Somerset Council.
The council’s cabinet decided at its meeting on Wednesday (January 4) to extend applications for money from its sustainability fund to next Tuesday from the previous December deadline.
Decisions will be announced two days later, on January 12.
The deadline for agreement of heads of terms for the transfer of the district council’s 12 public toilets has also been extended to Friday, January 20.
The council will cease to run the facilities after the end of March, with a saving of over £1 million.
Over £40,000 of the sustainability fund money has come from the recent sale of disused toilets in Church Street, Dunster.
A separate payment from the sustainability fund of £1,000 to cover costs associated with the transfer will be made for each toilet block.
The cabinet agreed to a recommendation from the council’s scrutiny committee that the toilets should be offered to applicants at £1 for the freehold or leasehold at £1 a year, whichever the new owners preferred.
The cabinet also accepted a scrutiny committee recommendation that an additional option of a licence be offered.
This would not be the preferred method of transfer as it did not allow for exclusive possession of the building, but each case would be considered on its merits.
Presenting a report to cabinet members, Cllr Mandy Chilcott, lead member for resources, said the council’s aim was to ensure the facilities remained open to serve the public.
She said that, in taking the decision to cease financial interest in the toilets, the council accepted that some one-off support would be needed for future operators, hence a ring-fenced sustainability reserve had been established.
Cllr Chilcott said that applications for sustainability funding should include quotes for proposed work, plans and confirmation of planning permission if necessary.
Non-council applicants should provide a statement of income and expenditure for the current year.
Applicants could be awarded up to 100 per cent of the project’s cost but, if match-funding was needed, evidence of this should be provided.
Once a grant was awarded, applicants would have up to 18 months to claim council funding.
This time-span “would have the potential to act as a lever for other grants to be applied for in order to obtain enough funding for a complete project,” Cllr Chilcott added.