There has been so much criticism of the unfortunate move by our council services to the new Community Access Point at the Corn Exchange in Bourne that one minor addition has been quietly forgotten and that is the provision of new public lavatories.

But they are not quite what we expected when we remember the assurances of past times to give Bourne state-of-the-art public toilets and as recently as 2003, a new 36-foot toilet block was promised at the entrance to the market square behind the Town Hall at a cost of £100,000. Councillor Linda Neal (Bourne West), leader of South Kesteven District Council, told The Local newspaper on Friday 7th February 2003: "The toilet facility will complement any core centre redevelopment. It will be a high quality provision and will be built as soon as it is feasibly possible."

Instead, the new public loos are tucked away unobtrusively on the west side of the building (pictured above) and are so small as to be totally insignificant and you may be forgiven for missing them, two small coin-operated cubicles each the size of a broom cupboard although excellently equipped with wash basin, clean, light and airy. Perhaps they have been installed by the council on the premise that small is beautiful, a challenge which seems to have been their slogan for the entire move to the Corn Exchange because the new public library is cramped for both borrowers and staff while accommodation is limited for the town council whose members hanker to be back in the spacious surroundings of the Town Hall. However, these mini-loos are now the only public lavatories left in Bourne, the last block in South Street having been shut to coincide with their opening.

The record of public lavatories in Bourne is not a good one, a story of neglect and closure and a total disregard by the local authorities of what is actually needed. In fact the situation was so bad at one time that a district councillor advised the public to use the shops and public houses instead, a suggestion that was received with anger by traders and landlords and derision by the people.

Until recent years, Bourne had three blocks of public toilets, one at the Recreation Ground in Harrington Street but now demolished because of vandalism, another at the North Street bus station which was pulled down in 2007 for the same reason, and the oldest block in South Street which has now been closed in favour of the new facility at the CAP.

The luxury loos were promised by SKDC as part of the much heralded “core centre redevelopment” for Bourne which was ignominiously scrapped in June 2010 after almost ten years of planning at enormous cost without a single brick being laid and although toilet needs are no less necessary, out with it went all prospects for new luxury loos to serve our expanding population. Instead, we have this facility tacked on to end of the Corn Exchange which we suppose is better than nothing although the cubicles may be difficult to find for motorists who stop in Bourne having been prompted by those huge roadside traffic signs indicating that public lavatories are available.

On a monetary note, inflation has also caught up with a visit to the public lavatory which in past years was always one penny in old money and inspired the immortal euphemism “Going to spend a penny”. Now the cost has shot up but I don’t think that “Going to spend 20p” is likely to catch on.

WRITTEN DECEMBER 2014

Go to:     Main Index     Villages Index