Licensees send council report down the pan

Cambridgeshire licensees are in uproar over a council report encouraging people to use pub loos instead of public toilets.

Richard Cassidy, director of environment and health at Fenland District Council, Cambridgeshire, wrote the report defending the threatened closure of half the district's public toilets.

He said: "Alternative public conveniences are available in the towns. These include one-stop shops, district council and county council buildings, pubs and commercial premises."

But local pub owners told The Publican they were angered by the claims.

Mrs Trisha Smith, licensee of The Acre, in March, one of the market towns where the council plans to close a public toilet, said: "It's a damn cheek.

"We already have a problem with underage people coming in just to use the toilets. Yet if we're found with underage people in the pub we'll get done. But wow do you keep them out? And if they've got nowhere else to go what are they supposed to do?"

Mick Thornton, licensee of The Oliver Twist Country Inn in Wisbech, where two public toilets are under threat of closure, said: "I'm not happy with the comments. I think they are ill founded and ill-thought out. I don't think they realise just what costs are involved."

Richard Savage, licensee of the Honest John in Chatteris, said: "The toilets for public houses are for patrons of those public houses. We do have people come in from time to time who are caught short and we are generous enough to share our facilities with them. But we'd like to think of it as our generosity rather than our obligation."

The report, which has also come under fire from local councillors, is due to be presented to the council for discussion next week.