Knighton Town Council is handing back public toilets to the county council, after its water bill rocketed by over 98 per cent.

The council feels they have been left with no option after being presented with a bill for over £4,500, for a leak they did not even know about.

The council is also going to review other toilets in the town to work out their options for the future.

They will look at what they can do to minimise maintenance, energy and vandalism costs for the tax payer and then take the options to town residents as part of a consultation process on the future of the town’s toilets.

The toilets at the cemetery on Presteigne Road belong to Powys County Council.

But the town council has been maintaining them for a few years to ensure that they would not be closed.

But they did not take the toilets on via a licence or a lease, as they are doing with the Offa’s Dyke toilets, the town council has just been cleaning them and paying the water bill.

But recently a water leak in the treeline near the toilets has caused the water bill to balloon, so the council has seen an increase in its bill of over 98 per cent.

Powys County Council has confirmed they will not be fixing this leak, and so the town council are no longer able to continue paying the water bill and will be handing the decision about what to do next with the toilets back to Powys. 

At a recent meeting Councillor Mark Vaughan in relation to the Bowling Green Lane toilets said he thought the town council should get an asset transfer, knock the current toilets down and put in modular toilets instead.

But Councillors Bob Andrews and Tina Sharp said the town does not need four sets of toilets.

Councillor Andrews said: “To have four sets of public toilets in a town this size is ludicrous. Most towns this size only have one block, to have four is absolutely ridiculous. They are in a total state of disrepair and it will cost us thousands to bring them upto a modern standard. In one year alone is cost us nearly £5,000 in vandalism.”

Councillor Sally Ross said the town council had gone around in circles trying to work out what to do with the toilets so they should ask the residents what they think.

Members agreed to work out all the facts and options and put it together to ask residents what they want to do with the toilets.