Plans to turn the public toilets at Winchelsea Beach into a sauna need further discussion after a two hour debate at Rother District Council. The toilets are one of 12 the council wants to lease commercially across the district.
The council's Overview and Scrutiny Committee voted by six votes to five to refer the plans for Winchelsea Beach (and Sedlescombe) to full council at a meeting at Bexhill Town Hall on Monday, July 7. The decision does not currently affect plans for Rye's Gun Garden and Strand toilets to be leased as coffee shops and the building on the Salts to be part converted into a cycle hub. All the commercial plans include keeping a minimum level of toilet provision.
Jacqui Stanford, the chair of Icklesham Parish Council, told the committee IPC had been lobbying to take on the Winchelsea Beach toilets for years. "They were paid for by the taxpayer and are vital for the visitors to the beach and playing fields. There has been no consultation with residents on this plan. The toilets have been in a poor state for years and we have our own plans to replace them - and the ones in the centre of Winchelsea."
She says the sauna plans will not make money for Rother District Council for some time. "We are being told that as the plan for the Winchelsea Beach toilets are now classed as generating income they cannot now be devolved to us. It will be a long time before they make any money and when it does it will be a very small amount."
Councillors clarified that any decision to refer the plan to full council only affected the toilets at Winchelsea Beach and Sedlescombe. Cllr Sue Burton said the other ten toilets being leased should not be included. "It's just those two. 10 leases are in a good position and nobody is opposing them today. Ten are satisfactory."
The commercial plans were praised by Cllr Si McGurk, who represents Rye and Winchelsea. "There has been a process. We've come up with some useful ways of generating income which is the bottom line. We can't go round the houses with the policy. It is absolutely necessary that we follow this through. I've had lots of correspondence in support of our approach. It has been universally positive for the most part."
You can watch the full debate here.
