More Toilet Trouble In Burgess Hill Town Centre

Regular readers will know that Burgess Hill Uncovered take a great interest in the public toilet offerings provided to the townsfolk by the Mid Sussex District Council.

SInce closing a number of facilities, they have no excuse to not maintain the very few left reminaing to a very high standard.

In October 2012 it became beyond a joke with the locks constantly being broken on the cubicle doors of the Martlets. It took over 6 months more of badgering Mid Sussex Distict Council for them to consider putting in more sturdy mechanisms.

Finally they were fitted and apparently at great expense. So how have those toilets fared since the new locks were fitted? Well, we went to find out.....



Not a very good start as the baby changing unit and one of the two ladies cubicles were 'out of order' What's out of order is that parents have nowhere to change their babies!

As for those new expensive locks that the council took about a year to fit, how are they working out....



Yeah, not good! Both the locks in the male cubicles are broken. How long has this been the case? Why have they not been fixed?



One cubicle has gone back to using the old lock system...



But for all these issues, why worry? We have the Community Toilet Scheme!
This was a scheme created by the council where they closed public toilets and wanted local businesses to make their facilities available for use. The uptake was slow, very slow, 18 months had passed and no progress,

Back in May 2013, Chris French asked the town council at a meeting about the public toilets:

'Chris French, 14 Firtoft Close, appreciated that public toilets were not a Town Council responsibility but he wondered what the Town Council was doing to provide more toilets and whether the MSDC community toilet scheme was working. Pru Moore, responded as a Mid Sussex District Councillor that public toilets were expensive to monitor, control and repair as they attracted a lot of anti - social behaviour. The community toilet scheme had been operating for 18 months and a review was due but early feedback indicated that it was a success.'

Ladies and gentlemen, the community toilet scheme has now been running for 31 months, how many new toilets in Burgess Hill have been made available under the scheme? None is the answer you're looking for.

So then, congratulations must go to Pru Moore, under her leadership, nothing has been achieved in improving the public toilet offerings in Burgess Hill. They've actually got worse.

Roll on May 215 and the local elections.

Got an opinion on this story? Leave a comment below.....
Is it acceptable that we have such poor public toilet provision in Burgess Hill? Is it right that you have nowhere to change your baby in town? Should the council open some new toilets and admit the the community toilet scheme has been a complete failure?