Waterfall visitors locked out of loos as budget cuts bite

But visitors to Llanrhaeadr waterfall near Oswestry can no longer spend a penny at the public toilets – after Powys County Council locked them up this week as part of budget cuts. Now the nearest public conveniences are four miles away in Llanrhaeadr.

Many public conveniences have been taken over by town and community councils. But Powys County Council said talks with a local business over the future of the toilets at the waterfall did not prove fruitful.

This came as a surprise to Phil Facey, who runs the Waterfall Tea Rooms, who said as far as he knew talks with council officers were still ongoing.

"The closure came completely out of the blue," said Phil Facey, who runs the Waterfall Tea Rooms. "We were notified on the Friday that the toilets would close the following Monday.

"We had been hoping that there could be a 'soft handover' of the toilets after they had been brought up to a good standard. The council has let them run down for years – they were in a dreadful condition."

Llanrhaeadr Waterfall, attracts more than 150,000 visitors a year and is one of the seven wonders of Wales.

"We have many, many walkers who arrive at the waterfall knowing that there are toilets that they can use," said Mr Facey.

"The nearest public toilets are now four miles away in Llanrhaeadr itself. They are not going to trek all the way there for the toilet."

The county council asked town and community councils to take over the running of 38 toilet blocks after revealing each one costs an average of £25,860 a year to keep open.

Earlier this yearLlanrhaeadr Community Council agreed to take over responsibility for the toilet block in the village but said the council could not afford to run two.