'Public loos should be reopened' (From Gazette & Herald)

'Public loos should be reopened'

PUBLIC loos in Malton's Wentworth Street car park, closed by Ryedale District Council (RDC) to save money, should be reopened and cash spent on stepping up recycling and buying a street sweeper, councillors have urged.

The move came during a four-hour-plus meeting of the council, when members discussed next year's budget, in which the authority is likely to agree an increase of just 2.5 per cent - one of the lowest in the country for 2006-7.

Coun Elizabeth Shields advocated spending £58,000 on refurbishing the Wentworth Street toilets and upgrading others in the district because of the increasing number of visitors to the area.

Coun Keith Knaggs labelled some of the spending ideas put forward in a financial report to the council as "a rat bag of in-house proposals", adding: "All we are doing is replacing one kind of inefficiency with another at a time when there is continuing threat to our organisation."

He said: "We should look at funding benefits to Ryedale residents, not dealing with pronouncements from the Government."

Coun Knaggs said RDC should build on its recycling success by recycling such commodities as cardboard. " We should help the public to do more recycling - they are asking for it," he said, suggesting that £25,000 should be earmarked for such a project.

There should also be £8,000 given to support private rented housing, he said.

Coun Howard Keal also backed reopening the public toilets and urged that £25,000 should be spent on providing a mechanical street sweeper. "The state of our pavements is far from good, especially in Malton and Norton, being covered with leaves in winter and dust in summer. We have a need for a better environment - we want clean streets and pavements."

Coun John Clark said he had originally wanted to see a five per cent cut in RDC's budget, but now believed it should be zero - a standstill situation.

He called for £25,000 to be spent on funding renewable energy solutions.

Coun Clark believed there was potential to cut costs at the Derwent Pool at Norton by using alternative energy sources and the council should investigate producing its own energy for Ryedale House, warning: "Energy prices will double in the next two to three years."

Using a wind turbine at the council's depot and installing double glazing at council offices would help to cut costs, he said.

Meanwhile, Coun Brian Cottam asked for £15,000 to be invested in taxi voucher schemes for people living in remote rural areas.

Trevor Teasdale, the council's chief financial officer, said bids totalling £554,229 had been made by councillors and officers for the coming financial year, but only £270,673 was available. Priority schemes are likely to concentrate on funding IT initiatives to both the council and the public.

Among other schemes put forward were grants for arts projects, websites, contamination land investigations, electronic service improvements and staffing.

The chairman, Coun Lindsay Burr, said the council had received one of its best financial settlements from the Government for several years.

The new budget would be discussed in detail by the council's policy and resources committee on February 2, prior to the full council meeting on February 16.

Updated: 15:27 Wednesday, January 18, 2006