Seafront site for toilets criticised

ACTION has been demanded to speed up the opening of new toilets on Bognor Regis seafront.

The past bank holiday weekend saw the town’s promenade packed with residents and visitors enjoying the sunny weather.

But any of those on the eastern section who wanted to relieve themselves were met with a hole in the ground.

The fenced-off site, opposite Walton Avenue, is set to be occupied by new unisex and disabled toilets to be installed by Arun District Council.

Two banners on the fencing state they will be arriving by the summer season.

But Bognor Regis town councillor Jeanette Warr, pictured above, said: “This is just not acceptable. Where are people along here going to go to the toilet?

“It will be too late for small children to have to wait for the traffic to stop and walk across the road.

“I’d like to know how Arun define the summer season. We’re now in May. We’ve had one bank holiday weekend this month, with another one two weeks ago, and all people can see instead of public toilets is this hole.

“There’s no sign directing people to the loos in the Regis Centre on the opposite side of the road.

“It is disgraceful. There are no facilities for anyone on this part of the seafront. I don’t know what visitors thought over the weekend when they decided to come here and saw this site on a popular stretch of the seafront.” The new toilets – costing £200,000

- were agreed earlier this year at the second attempt by Arun’s councillors after protests from residents opposite that they faced looking at the building’s doors.

The loos are being built at the manufacturer and will be delivered ready to be installed.

They will replace separate underground sites for men’s and women’s toilets. These are intact but have been closed by Arun because it says they attracted vandalism and were prone to be flooded.

The unisex toilets will be built on the site of Arun’s demolished foreshore office – replaced by a smaller building to the west of the bandstand – and which contained the promenade’s only toilet for disabled people.

But Cllr Mrs Warr (LD, Hotham) said: “It doesn’t look like the new toilets will be ready for months. That means there will be no toilets for disabled people on the seafront. Anyone else would have kept the old facilities open until the new ones were ready. All we get from Arun is promises, promises, promises – but nothing materialises.” Arun has apologised for any problems caused by the lack of seafront toilets.

The council expects to put in the foundations for the new toilets in June. The building is expected to be fully working by the end of July in time for the school summer holidays.

In the meantime, the nearest public toilets are in the Regis Centre or Waterloo Square.