A PROPOSAL to auction the closed public toilets on Church Street, Dunster, in October has been approved by West Somerset Council’s scrutiny committee.

But councillors are hopeful that this move can be averted if a local community group takes them on.

Interested parties have six weeks to come forward and six months to make a bid.

And county council chairman Christine Lawrence, a member of the village working group tasked with looking at ways of reopening the derelict toilets, said everything possible would be done to find a way for Dunster to run the facility, possibly as a community interest company.

“A lot of people are working very hard to find a viable way of reopening the Church Street toilets which have been closed for nearly four years,” she told the Free Press.

“A tourist attraction like Dunster needs adequate toilet facilities or coach companies, and people, will simply go elsewhere.

“The problem is that time and financial considerations are simply not on our side.”