A NEW public toilet block in Wellington could cost around £250,000 if councillors decide to take the plunge and go-ahead with the project. 

A special meeting of Wellington Town Council will take place on Tuesday (August 27) where councillors will meet with representatives of project consultants Ravenslade to hear about possible plans for the rebuilding of the loos in Longforth Road.

Councillors have had a number of private meetings with Ravenslade over the past year and although they have said in public that they were concerned about the high costs involved, they had never revealed actual sums.

But now figures have been released in a report and it makes eye-watering reading to provide facilities for people wanting to spend a penny.

Councillors have been given two options - a traditional brick-built building at a cost of £256,646 or a modular construction costing £238,205.

Representatives of Healthmatic will be at the meeting as well to put forward the case for a modular building.

The previous toilet block at Longforth Road was demolished earlier this year and the site has been cleared in readiness for a new building, but now councillors have to decide what they actually want.

The toilets had been earmarked for demolition for over a year after a motorist had driven into the building and left it unsafe in December 2022.

But councillors had been looking at doing something with the toilets long before the crash because the loos had been plagued with maintenance problems and were continually out of order and shut.

The costs, however, involved in building a new toilet block will concern councillors - especially now at a time when the town council is taking on more services from cash-strapped Somerset Council and stretched finances are top of the agenda.

Only a couple of months ago Cllr Andy Govier said he "feared" about the costs of the toilet block project, while Cllr Mark Lithgow said he was "horrified" by the amounts mentioned.

If councillors give the go-ahead for the project to proceed it will still be at least a year before the new toilets are open.

It has been estimated that if it is a brick-built toilet block it will be ready for use by the end of October 2025 with the actual construction starting in June, while a modular building will be up and running at the start of next August and take just a couple of weeks to install as it comes already made and just needs putting together.

Both options involve two toilet cubicles and one disabled loo with baby changing facilities along with a store room and a service room.

The council is still awaiting the settlement of an insurance claim for the damage caused during the car crash at the toilet block and until it has that funding available it does not know what money is needed to make up the deficit.

Councillors have already voted in favour that the balance will be funded through a Public Works Loan Board loan.