Carrying on at your convenience is on the agenda in Peebles

Peebles Community Council has made a request for the free to use toilets in Haylodge Park to be open all year round.

At the current time the public conveniences are only open from April to October.

Haylodge Park is well-used throughout the year and there are park runs there every Saturday

At a meeting of Peebles Common Good Fund Sub-Committee last night, Wednesday, February 23, members considered the financial implications of such a move.

They were informed that it costs £300 a week to clean the toilets - that would amount to £15,600 if the facility was open 12 months of the year.

As a result members decided instead to look at the possibility of opening them at the weekend-only through the winter.

Eric Small said: "If it's going to bring people into the town I think it's a good thing but it's a lot of money over the year so I think we need a breakdown in the usage of it to see if it is justifiable to keep it open all year round."

Councillor Shona Haslam raised the weekend-only solution.

She added: "I am thinking that if it is costing £12,000 to open the toilets for five months of the year but to open them full time is £15,600 then it's not a massive amount of money on top. But if we can bring that figure down slightly, by only opening at weekends, then that becomes a lot more viable. However, any money we spend on keeping the toilets open is taking money away from projects in the town.

"We have to consider whether keeping the toilets open at the weekend is a higher priority than giving the money to good causes?"

Members agreed to bring a report to the next meeting on the financial implications of keeping the toilets open over the winter on a weekend-only basis.