SCOTTISH Borders Council will tomorrow (Thursday) be urged to scrap the introduction of a 30p entry charge at 27 public conveniences across the region.

The demand will come from the Conservative opposition group at Newtown which wants the cash-raising measure removed from the council’s budget plans for 2017/18.

As reported in these columns, the decision to impose the charges was taken by the council’s executive committee last Tuesday.

After an initial capital outlay of £200,000 to install automated machines, affording paying customers access via a paddle gate entry system, the regime is expected to achieve full year savings of £211,000 for a council which currently spends £323,000 a year maintaining 41 public toilets.

Since that meeting, however, the council has learned it is to receive an extra £2.88m from the Scottish Government which had originally planned to cut its contribution to SBC’s revenue spending in 2017/18 by £8.28m.

The Tories want to use some of that windfall to retain free access to all of the council’s public toilets.

And the nine-strong group will formally move that demand at tomorrow’s meeting of the full council, when revenue and capital budgets for the coming year will be set and a three per cent Council Tax increase for Band A to D households ratified.

“We expect to agree with most of the savings which the council’s ruling administration will propose,” said Councillor George Turnbull (Con, Hawick & Hermitage) who will table the budget amendment.

“But our group met on Monday and unanimously agreed that imposing charges on some public toilets is discriminatory, unfair and plainly wrong.

“We believe the projected savings are over-optimistic given the likelihood there will be public resistance to the charges and that the machines are likely to be a magnet for theft and vandalism.

“There is no suggestion in this proposal that the quality of the facilities will be improved and we believe charging the public for the privilege of using them is counterproductive when we are desperately trying to attract more visitors to the region to help regenerate our towns.”

If the Conservative call for a U-turn fails tomorrow, Mr Turnbull revealed that, as chairman of SBC’s watchdog scrutiny committee, he has obtained the required number of signatures from councillors to have last week’s executive decision “called in”.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that, but if the administration maintains its position on charging for public conveniences, the call-in will go to the scrutiny meeting later this month with our recommendations going to the last meeting of the current council in March.”

Council leader David Parker said yesterday that the impact of the £2.88m extra cash from the Scottish Government on his council’s revenue spending plans was still being considered by his administration ahead of tomorrow’s meeting.

But he added: “Given the competing demands on how we should moderate the savings we must make in a budget which is still very challenging financially, I think it highly unlikely we will remove the proposal to charge the public for the use of these toilets.”

If Mr Parker is right and if the Tory bid fails, it will not be the first time the council has charged the public to use its toilets.

Up until 2008, a 25p charge was levied at eight staffed locations – in Hawick, Selkirk Galashiels, Melrose, Jedburgh, Kelso, St Boswells and Peebles – but the scheme was abandoned with annual staffing costs of £177,000 outstripping income of just £65,000.

Where the charges will be introduced

Scottish Borders Council’s ruling administration has proposed a 30p entry charge, to be phased in over the next financial year, at the following public conveniences:

Galashiels (High Street car park, Bank Street Gardens, Transport Interchange); Hawick (Common Haugh, Howegate, Volunteer Park); Peebles (Kingsmeadows, Eastgate car park, School Brae); Jedburgh (Lothian Park, Tourist Information Centre); Kelso (Shedden Park, Woodmarket/Horsemarket); Eyemouth (Bantry car park, Harbour); Selkirk (Market Place); Innerleithen (Hall Street); Lauder (The Avenue); Earlston (bus station); St Boswells (Main Street); Melrose (Abbey Place); Duns (Briery Baulk); Newcastleton (Langholm Street); Coldstream (Courthouse car park); St Abbs (Harbour); Coldingham (Coldingham Sands); and Yarrow Valley (St Mary’s Loch).