Grantown’s High Street public toilets to get axed at end of year
Grantown is to lose its High Street public toilets after local Highland councillors concurred that figures do not stack up to keep two WCs in operation in the town.
Members of the council’s Badenoch and Strathspey area committee agreed at their meeting on Monday in the town to close the facility and to sell the building.
The current cost to operate the Grantown High Street facilities is around £10,176 per year.
Council officials have said supporting a Comfort Scheme at Grantown’s community-owned Burnfield facilities will cost £200 per month.
Debbie Sutton, the council’s strategic lead on community operations and logistics, said: “In 2018 it was agreed that one of the two public conveniences the council was operating at that time would remain open and operated by the local authority and that was the High Street facility.
“At that time the Burnfield facility was closed.
“We then had a successful community asset transfer of the Burnfield toilets and the Grantown Initiative has been running these since 2023.
“We have been monitoring the usage of our High Street site and there has been reduced footfall and income for the council.”
Ms Sutton said there would be ‘some negative impact’ caused by the closure but that the other public conveniences were only 500 metres away.
She said that the Grantown Initiative would take on the council’s Comfort Scheme at their public toilets to run from the start of next year to end of March 2026.
Councillor Bill Lobban (Independent) said: “What this does is support community enterprise and the refurbishment of the Burnfield toilets and by doing this we can support them even further.”
Councillor Muriel Cockburn (SNP) said: “This is a very good pro-active way of extending the Comfort Scheme to the Burnfield toilets.”
She also urged that any fittings in the High Street facilities should be re-purposed.
The total income generated from the High Street site since 2018 is £31,340.36.
The public toilets will close for good on December 31.
Highland Council currently operates 74 public conveniences throughout the region.
The local authority does not have a statutory responsibility to provide or operate public conveniences.
The Burnfield toilets operates daily from 6.30am to 11pm, with a 50p entrance fee and all funds raised go towards the maintenance and management of the toilets.
The local authority also charges 50p for use of the High Street facility and £2 for the showers.
