British Toilet Association: Archived News from the British Toilet Association 

New Public Toilets for Knaresborough

Nationally, there is public concern at the decline in public toilets but in the Harrogate district residents and visitors have welcomed news of Harrogate Borough Council’s investment. The latest to benefit is the town of Knaresborough where a brand new £150,000 facility is ready to open its doors at the bus station.

And this new public toilet building is the district’s first fully ‘green’ facility. It will be generating some of its own electricity via photo-voltaic panels which will feedback to the National Grid. The green initiatives also include sun tunnels for light and rainwater storage to use for flushing.

Harrogate Borough Council is into the sixth year of an eight-year programme of renovating, refurbishing or replacing public toilets, with investment bringing benefit not just for users but also for local businesses.

Councillor Alan Skidmore, Cabinet Member for Resources, says: “Public toilets are expensive to provide and run which is why many councils have had to close facilities. In this district, where many businesses rely for their livelihood on visitors, we have a programme of investment in our toilets. We decided that this programme of investment should not just be about maintenance but could include rebuilds.

“Many visitors and residents make use of Knaresborough’s bus station so we know that these facilities are going to be well used.”

James Walton, Principal Building Surveyor in the council’s property management team has overseen this project and comments on the council’s commitment to carbon reduction. He said: “Public toilets by their very nature use a lot of power. This new public building is utilising the latest ‘green’ technology available to reduce its carbon footprint as well as saving money on operating costs. As well as the photo-voltaic panels to generate electricity, we have also included sun tunnels which will channel natural light into the building which will save on the electricity and we are harvesting rainwater to use in the urinals and to flush WCs.” ENDS

As part of the survey work done in 2005 to decide on priority, Knaresborough’s bus station scored highly. Because this is a huge investment, smaller projects were carried out at the start of the programme to give the council time to build up the budget needed for Knaresborough’s new facility.

There are six public toilets in the town. These new toilets will be 24 hours, will be fully accessible together with family facilities and will also provide a small office for the local parking attendant.

Work has recently been completed at toilets in Dacre, Lofthouse and Middlesmoor.

12 August 2010