Two reports setting out proposals for works to refurbish public toilets at Clock Tower, Margate and Stone Bay, Broadstairs will be reviewed by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel, at a meeting on Tuesday 17 September. They will then be considered for approval by the Cabinet, on Thursday 26 September.
In December 2023, Cabinet approved an investment of £1.25 million to deliver the first phase of improvement works to public toilets across the district. Since then repair and improvement works to nine public toilets have been completed.
The reports propose the procurement and award of two contracts. The first, for works to refurbish the subterranean toilets on Marine Drive, near the Clock Tower and build new toilets at street level that allow level access for disabled people. The estimated value of the contract will be £358k.
The second, for works to refurbish the existing toilet block at Stone Bay and build a new accessible toilet block at promenade level. The estimated value of the contract will be £283k.
The toilets at Marine Drive have been closed since 2019 and can only be accessed by a staircase. In order to provide fully accessible facilities, new toilets would need to be built. Both proposals for new toilets are subject to planning permission.
If approved by Cabinet, it is anticipated that works will begin next year.
Cllr Steve Albon, Cabinet Member for Cleansing and Coastal Services, said: “We recognise the importance that the provision of public toilets has for both local people and visitors.
“The opportunity for Councillors to consider how we might continue to improve them and make them accessible for all the people that might need them is welcomed. Cabinet looks forward to receiving the recommendations made by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel so that we can make a timely decision.”
When are they going to sort out the crumbling old toilets at Beresford Gap, as well as reopen the nearby drinking fountain?
Well the toilets at the clock tower mainsands have only been closed and waiting over a decade
Not forgetting the shelters ( currently still fenced off into the 3rd year ) that will apparently be sorted in spring
those shelters are full of crumbling lead based paint, same as most of the other ones on the foreshore, just like in westbrook by the sunken gardens that have been shuttered for years too.
If the Marine Parade toilets are brought back into use to a standard thet they remain useable for 20 years including street level disabled facilities for a final cost of less than 500k i’ll be amazed and not surprised if it goes over 750k.
It is the usual case of TDC allowing the toilets to fall into disrepair in the first instance; then to have wasted money on hiring Portaloos for the past five years; and the cost of providing an alternative has rocketed out of all proportion.
If you can buy a very nice property with a very nice garden for £358,000 – why does it cost that much to construct something that is no more than a small bungalow containing a dozen toilet pans and half a dozen washbasins ? ? ?
When the Labour group took control of TDC last year, we promised to improve the toilets.
That’s what we’re doing.
Our toilets have been neglected for years and we’re the first to do anything meaningful about it.
Except in Birchington-on-Sea.
The payments are colloquially known as a “bung” to whoever is in line to do the work.
Because of the manner in which the public sector specifies and procures infrastructure. To start with the toilets were closed due to structural concerns, that needs putting right and will have lots of unknowns. Then the new toilets will need to be built with all sorts of expensive items to dissuade drug use ( special lighting, just about every surface in a cubicle curved, most if not all the sanitary ware will be stainless steel, everything designed to be easily cleaned, list is endless). Then there’ll be a settling/ filter system for the waste water from the basins and any cleaning to deal with sand bought in by those using the toilets.
Then you have the tender process that effectively bars smaller firms from bidding , and you end up with expensive contractors with huge overheads.
In the last year TDC paid £800 to replace two 4×2 perspex panels ( material cost with express delivery under £80) time to measure up and fit ( so two visits) total of 4 hours max.
Then you have the design and construction work for the pavement level disabled facilities.
Really don’t see it all being done for the figure suggested, survey, structural design, architect fees will be around 15% of the bill before you even start.
As a comparison the brickwall and railings round Dalby Square gardens ( not including the old carpark) cost 400k and that was 8 years ago.
But time will tell.
Surely the winter gardens should get refurbished 1st before anything. That will earn revenue. 99% of people have a phone or watch to find out the time ? It puzzles me on what the councils waste money on especially on stuff that doesn’t give them any return. Get the winter gardens back to its glory .Blackpool winter gardens is always in use . ?
We really can’t be having portaloos for an eternity on the seafront, plus Wintergardens will need 20 million to do a decent job on it, pretty sure that sort of money is not available. Plus there’s been a rumour that the new Dreamland Owners are in talks over Winter Gardens , how true that is i’ve no idea.
But it’d get rid of a tdc albatross and leave them to concentrate on theatre royal.
Not before time if they do them up. They recognise how important they are for locals and visitors so why has it taken 5 years with complaints each Easter to get this far?
Can they make a start on all the coastal shelters next, (including the one they gave that art programme the use of for 5 years, you know, the one that has been left to rot instead of being brought back to it’s former glory as promised), as they are also important to locals and visitors and they are part of Thanet heritage that should be maintained by the local authority for the benefit of everyone.
“Can they make a start on all the coastal shelters next, (including the one they gave that art programme the use of for 5 years, you know, the one that has been left to rot instead of being brought back to it’s former glory as promised),”
They’re riddled with lead based paint and would require a specialist refurb. A complete tear down, stripping off site at a special remediation firm, then reinstalling from the ground up. Not to mention the decontamination of the surrounding site.
Where on earth is this money coming from, are TDC telling us that after they have allowed for dealing with its priority list of which is too numerous to list fully but deals with rough sleepers, libraries, litter and rubbish, graffiti, and numerous other things they are responsible for, they have millions of pounds disposable for this folly, paint it for 5.000 pounds. Your being taken for a ride. Then there is the old margate theatre and falling down flats they want to buy. Thanet must be the wealthiest council in Kent with this much disposable income. Clowns
It’s capital budget – used for long term investments and therefore from a different ‘pot’ than day to day operations that are used for litter, rubbish & graffiti.
Libraries are funded by KCC.
Well it’s good to see Councillor Albon around and about again. Totally MIA all summer when the waste and recycling arrangements around the beaches were in meltdown.
There were technical issues around 10-13 August that coincided with some of our busiest days. Cllr Albon was absolutely instrumental in overcoming these issues.
Once they were sorted – the cleanliness across the Isle was noticeable for the remainder of the summer.
“Once they were sorted – the cleanliness across the Isle was noticeable for the remainder of the summer.”
I’d disagree with that, wholesale, to be honest.
TDC must be raking in tens of millions from the council tax now being raised on the thousands of DFL’s (dross from London). London have emptied their slums to create new slums in Thanet.
When TDC finally consider that Thanet is full up we will be inhabiting an island of wall-to-wall, gerry-built tract housing full of London’s unemployed facing the now multiple-occupied hotels and guest houses of old filled with unemployed dross from elsewhere.
Aaah, brave new world.
Do you realise that TDC only receive 12p in the pound of what is paid in Council Tax? Also many Air BnBs are registered as a business and as a result of the ‘low’ turnover they do not even pay council tax which is outrageous when they are making a high profit and depriving locals of somewhere to rent.
Well and truly time toilets are refurbished and I believe, from other articles I have read, that the funds for this are coming from one of the funds this area has been awarded rather than from council tax pot.
SO TDC have destroyed or are destroying Thanet for 12p in the pound?
That’s not what I call good value.
What is it, unemployed cross from London or council tax payers? You seem a little confused. In fact your comment was gibberish.
What is “tract housing”?
I’m glad not everyone has the despondent viewpoint which Alex Peters has. Actually quite a few people making comments on this thread don’t seem to have a positive view on life at all.”Dross” is not how I’d describe the people I lived among in a deprived London borough for over 20 years.
I can’t recall you ever commenting on any positive articles here (exhibitions, events, restaurants, etc). Practice what you preach, Ms. M&M.
“Practise” is the verb, “practice” is the noun.
Weird that such a globally celebrated and renowned author didn’t know that, ha.
You never do typos?
I’m not the one who waves my willy about being such a globally renowned and lauded author, self publishing on Amazon and never going above the 30k top sellers line in sales rankings.
My books are also sold via Waterstones and W.H.Smiths, to name just two (check their websites if you don’t believe me).
And now you’re going to die in an area that is being made ‘deprived’ by the thousands of people coming from other deprived areas. And, yes, I call them dross… turn up, out of work, on benefits, taking places at our overburdened schools, dentists, doctors et al and bringing NOTHING of value to our towns. Just a drain on our resources.
As I’m now over 70 years old, I probably will die in Thanet. So what? But where does Alex Peters get his /her inside information from? Are there other Thanet residents who know for a fact what all the newcomers from outside Thanet who will arrive in the future will be like? Who know, for instance, if they’ll have jobs or not? That none of them will be doctors or dentists? That they’ll all be on the dole?
But it’s all right for people like me, as we’re pretty old now and will die fairly soon! So we’ll miss out on all the bad things that Alex Peters knows for a fact will happen in the future.
Let’s hope it’s not in Wetherspoons. Could cause an inconvenience.
Council must already know that Council Tax will increase well above the current 5% limit to be spending money on public toilets that have remained closed due to council neglect for several years.
Our new Labour MP will be able to use the facilities when arriving from her home in London of the train.
Apparently she now lives in the area (she informed a Margate art magazine rather than the local press!).
The Mercury is local printed press though?
The current council seems intent on spending like drunk sailors on a sturday night, the projections for some of the projects breaking even and the supposed savings the capital expenditure seem for want of a better word somewhat optimistic and when asked for links to the more detailed costings none are offered.
So it’ll ne no surprise that thanet lives beyond its means for a while goes skint and then has to ask permission for additional council tax rises, which when it happens we’ll either be told “it was done by a previous council and there’s bothing we can do” or “ unforseen circumstances arose that were outwith original projections and there’s nothing we can do” what ever does happen no one will be held to account.
Lets wait 10 years and see what happens.
“So it’ll ne no surprise that thanet lives beyond its means for a while goes skint and then has to ask permission for additional council tax rises, which when it happens we’ll either be told “it was done by a previous council and there’s bothing we can do” or “ unforseen circumstances arose that were outwith original projections and there’s nothing we can do” what ever does happen no one will be held to account.”
This is happening in every council up and down the country thanks to fourteen years of needless ideological austerity.
As against the needless ideology of trying to buy a standard of living councils can’t afford? Austerity is no different to tightening your belt when the pot is empty. As a nation we can’t keep letting ever more people do little and expect those that strive to fill the pot.
If we want to allow people to cripple their health by overeating ( way more of a burden on the nhs and taxpayer than smoking) , allow people to work from home but achieve little, let the mental health nonsense career out of control , fill the country with low skilled low waged workers who inturn need additional support , decide that shoplifting is seemingly acceptable despite it causing actual measurable harm but chase a motorist passing a speed camera doing a few miles over the limit to the nth degree despite them having caused no measurable harm, decide that council tax is decided purely on a notional value of a home rather than the amount of services the household uses with little thpught as to the hpuseholds income, the list is endless.
A society that wants simplicity and no personal responsibility is never going to be sustainable, there are always those who Will genuinely need help , but these days we want everyones whims met with no thought as to how that is paid for.
Eventually it all has to hit the buffers , in trying to avoid that collision decisions and financial wizardry get ever more desperate and just means the ultimate crash is ever more catastrophic. Free money doesn’t exist and real wealth can only be earnt, the nation has abandoned the notion of the value of a decent education and good skills in favour of getting as much as possible for doing as little as possible, it doesn’t bode well.
In this instance we have a council coming up with numbers for projects that are detached from reality ( if the job is donoe properly) the council goes for the easy option and questions little. Why is beyond me ( one example is the council paying for legionella procedures used for hospitals and care homes etc in some of their blocks of flats, costs thousands and is totally pointless as the water systems they have don’t warrant such testing, this is actually stated in the Legionella risk assessments the council commissions but for some reason pointless contracts are issued and costs incurred, all because it’s easier to sign something off paid with others money than question anything) as such endless cash is wasted.
Remember the waste removed from the Dane park depot, why would you give this to Mears rather than go to a waste removal contractor, tdc effectively paid Mears a considerable commission for doing the subcontracting, and even then it went substantially above the quote.
All for a situation that should never have arisen, but i doubt anyone in TDC was held to account. But never mind the council tax payer can cough up.
TL:DR your rambles
At least i have a viewpoint beyond simplistic slogans. What would your solutions be and where do you see the issues in the system? Or are you part of the problem in that a few minutes of application is too much effort, preferring the easy opt out instead.?
i think allowing councillors to decide is an ok idea but not local councillors.As a follower of horse+racing blinkers can be removed or installed.
councillors to decide in thanet should be done by outside councillors from anywhere around our lovely country.
Thanet councillors if suitable qualified then can make planning agreements in another part of our lovely GB island..
Seems to me, planning has not changed since Our very respected home guard and captain Mannering. Thank you to the home guard.