Plans for community takeover of Bo'ness public toilets still in pipeline despite low meeting turnout

A public meeting was held at the town’s Salvation Army Hall on Tuesday evening in a bid to gauge the community’s interest in having the facilities open once again after Falkirk Council closed them for good in April last year. The event was organised by local group Buzzness and the community council as the initial steps in a potential community asset transfer of the council owned property.

Despite widespread advertising of the event, including delivering leaflets to homes throughout the town, posters in shops and posts on social media, attendance at the meeting was low, with less than 30 people there on the night. However, those driving the project say they will continue to explore the options for the town to take ownership of the facilities, with positive feedback from those who did attend.

Addressing the meeting, Jaine Mclean said: “The toilets have been closed for some time and we do feel it’s something that’s needed in the community. We’re hoping to apply for a community transfer, which means it would be transferred into public ownership, but to do that we need to form a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) which in turn opens up funding to help run the building. To move this forward we need to submit a plan on how we’re going to run and maintain it.”

The meeting heard that other community run facilities in Tomintoul are run for £6000 a year which covers maintenance and cleaning supplies.

Jaine added: “It’s not a huge sum of money and we think we could achieve it through funding applications. We will have to wait for funding so in the mean time what we’re really looking for is people to volunteer as initially we will need people to unlock the building, lock the building and do some cleaning. In time we would hope if we had funding we could perhaps employ a cleaner. If we had enough people come forward, volunteers would only need to take a turn once a month.”

In terms of the criteria which are required to be met for a community asset transfer, those behind the project are confident they “tick all the boxes”.

Jaine added: “It’s an asset to the town, which is very busy with visitors on the John Muir Way and steam railway. It’s a busy wee town and it really does need to have the public toilets open, even just for the local people as well.

“Without volunteers we can’t move forward and that would mean the building will stay closed. As a town if we want these facilities we need to take ownership of them and run them ourselves and for that we really do need volunteers. We need to go to the council and show we can do this and have the people power in place to do it.”

Billy Horn, chairman of Buzzness, added: “It’s now or never, we’ve got one chance to take it. If we don’t then it will disappear to dust eventually.”

With the small number in attendance, it was suggested by one member of the public that perhaps a different approach such as seeking sponsorship to get things up and running may be required.

Jaine and Billy said they will continue to pursue the opportunity and are continuing to invite people to come forward and get involved – whether it’s volunteering to open and close the building, or helping with form filling and funding applications.