Wee need you: plea as community looks to reopen public toilets in Bo'ness

The public conveniences were closed by Falkirk Council for good last year in a bid to save money, but now locals are keen to get the facilities reopened even if it means taking the task on themselves.

Local group BUZZness, which is involved in organising events in the town, has organised a meeting on the subject at the Salvation Army Hall, Corbiehall on Tuesday, May 2 at 7pm.

Billy Horn, chairman of BUZZness, said: “It’s at the very early stages. The purpose of the meeting is to see how much appetite there is from the people in Bo’ness for the toilets.

“The council are closing things down because they have not got any money. We could jump up and down and stamp our feet but it doesn’t achieve anything so the best we can do is give it a try for ourselves.

“Sadly we’ve got an awful habit of shooting ourselves in the foot in Bo’ness when we have the chance to achieve things but then no one steps forward. So we’re keen to see who is interested in digging in and helping get the toilets open again.

“We want to see how many people are willing to get involved and help make this work. Almost certainly in the first instance it will all be community run by volunteers.”

Since the official closure of the public toilets on April 1, 2022 there have been no facilities available to locals or visitors caught short in the town. Billy said it’s a situation many are unhappy about.

He continued: “Bo’ness is quite busy with the John Muir Way but there’s no toilets for walkers to use. I’ve been around a lot of Scotland in our camper van and Falkirk district seems to be the worst sadly for public toilets as the council have closed the lot of them. I’m assuming other councils are facing the same funding cuts but they are still managing to keep their facilities open.

“We’re becoming quite touristy given our history and being in the region of the Kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel and all the Roman history, but the facilities for visitors are severely lacking. No public toilets is the one thing people locally are always complaining about. The council are not going to reopen them so we need to try ourselves.

“If we can’t get them reopened when it comes to BUZZness running events licensing will demand portable toilets which are unsightly and often smelly and an additional cost. But if we’re inviting four, five, six hundred people down to the town centre and they are bringing their kids with them we need to have somewhere for them to go.

“We’re going to try and reopen the toilets ourselves. It’s not ideal but it’s the best we can hope for at this given time. We can only give it our best shot. We’re under no illusion of the size of the task, which is why we need people to get involved.

"It’s opening and shutting them every day for the best of the year, it’s not just for a couple of weeks, but we need people power to make it work.”

A survey of the toilets in Register Street has already been carried out and Billy said the building is in a good condition. He added: “They are in such good condition you could just about open the shutters and switch the water on tomorrow and you’d be good to go.” It is hoped that people will turn out and show their support for the plans.