A BUSINESS owner has called on Chippenham Town Council to once again look into buying a toilet block that is scheduled for demolition in an effort to stop people from urinating outside her rented property.

Rachel Terry owns The Citadel Hall, which is next to the Bath Road toilets in the centre of town that are currently owned by Wiltshire Council, after Chippenham Town Council decided not to take on the running of the facilities.

As a result of people urinating on a daily basis outside The Citadel Hall, according to Mrs Terry, she is now asking for action to be taken.

“Almost every day someone has urinated on the emergency exit door which is in the back corner of the car park which we also use as a loading bay,” she said. “People go to the toilets, find they are locked with a little notice saying where they can go and by the time they read that, they don’t know where it is so they walk around the corner and wee against the back door.

“I’ve tackled a couple of people about it and just been told where to go. I spoke at a town council meeting last week and a couple of the councillors said could the decision be looked at again.”

Wiltshire councillor Nina Phillips, who represents Cepen Park and Redlands ward, is now calling on the town council to reconsider its position on the facilities and will bring it up at a meeting next week.

“It’s not a question of necessarily wanting the town council, who clearly can’t take it on at the moment because a lot of things are being dissolved, but it could be in partnership with the BID or Borough Lands,” she said.

“Business don’t want people toileting on their doorstep and it’s a desperate problem.”

The toilet block has been closed since April after Chippenham Town Council decided not to take over running the public conveniences from Wiltshire Council.

The decision to demolish them was revealed in a newsletter sent to town and parish councils by Coun Philip Whitehead in July said “work will soon begin on the demolition of the overhead canopy, public conveniences and the adjoining wall in Bath Road car park”. A planning application for the demolition has been submitted but has yet to be agreed.