A CROSS-party working group is to be set up by Trowbridge Town Council to look at the options for reinstating public toilets for the Town Park.

Councillors voted to establish the group at their annual town meeting which was held online on Tuesday, May 19.

The group will report back to the council’s Policy & Resources Committee on the options for providing public toilets in existing locations, such as the Civic Centre, the town park refreshment kiosk or the proposed new storage unit.

Town clerk Lance Allan told councillors: “I have received a preliminary indication of the cost of providing a new public toilet facility incorporated into the Civic Centre or attached to the refreshment kiosk, from Healthmatic, a local company.

“The cost of a three-cubicle inbuild will be approximately £82,000-£90,000 while a single cubicle will be £38,000-£48,000, depending on what is required.”

Trowbridge resident Paul Jubbie accused the council of not conducting a proper equality impact assessment before deciding to demolish the public toilets last year.

He said: “When I made an FOI request to Trowbridge Town Council last year to receive a copy of the audit trail demonstrating your assessments on equality prior to demolishing the toilets the response came back to me that there was nothing on paper.”

Councillors now plan to consult elderly, disabled and vulnerable people, pregnant mums and others before deciding what to do about reinstating public toilets to serve the town park.

Some councillors believe the council should allow the public to use toilets to be incorporated within the proposed £500,000 town park storage unit.