Call for 'flexibility' over closure of Rosemarkie toilets
FEARS are intensifying over the future of public toilets in Rosemarkie after Highland Council revealed that it would only keep them open until the end of March.
The 11th hour news appears to fly in the face of assurances given to local community leaders at a meeting last November and has sparked a petition that has already got more than 80 signatures from worried locals calling for the council to keep the facility open.
It had been hoped a charitable trust could be set up to take over the running of the facility, a process anticipated to take months, but time for that is running out and in the meantime it is feared harm could be done to the village’s appeal as a visitor destination.
The well-loved and well-respected Groam House Museum could be impacted as well, with staff and visitors both needing to use the public convenience as there are no facilities on the premises.
A council spokeswoman said: “A draft temporary lease is being drawn up to enable the planned Community Development Trust to be taken forward. If the facility is not taken on by the community then it will close on March 31as per report to the Highland Council [on] October 25.
“No survey will be undertaken, the facility will transfer in ‘as seen, as is’ condition, the facilities will transfer in their current operational condition. The position of toilets remaining open whilst negotiations are ongoing is for this financial year only. There is no budget to retain facilities... which is why we want to get the leases sorted out before the end of March.”
Despite that the director of the Groam House Museum Doug Maclean, who recently attended a meeting of the community council where the future of the toilets was on the agenda remains hopeful.
“We are confident that by some means or other, through a charitable trust taking over the running of the toilets and the good services of the local people, we will be able to keep the toilets open,” he said.
However, Mr Maclean was in no doubt about how serious an effect the closure would have on Rosemarkie as well as Groam House Museum.
“From the museum’s point of view it is absolutely vital for our existence. We have groups of school children that come here and of course children need to go to the toilet,” he said.
“We also have groups of mainly elderly American tourists and they are not in a position to make their way to the beach café. And we would lose both those groups without the toilets which put the museum in jeopardy.”
Black Isle ward councillor Gordon Adam said: “I am in discussions with the council over the time limit of March 31, my view is that the council needs to be flexible. Savings have to be made, but sticking rigidly to a timetable leaves little time to form development groups.”
