Cleaning public toilets in Brighton and Hove is to be brought back under council control after “significant concern” about how the current contractor is performing.
Healthmatic was awarded a 10-year contract to clean and maintain public toilets in 2017.
It committed £600,000 towards refurbishing the sites in 2017, with money from charging to use the toilets due to have been used to upgrade several sites.
But a report going before councillors said that no refurbishment has happened.
Tomorrow (Thursday 1 July), members of the council’s Policy and Resources Committee are due to decide whether to terminate the cleaning and maintenance contract and bring it in-house under Cityclean, giving the company at least six months’ notice.
The toilet refurbishment programme will also be funded by the council through its medium-term financial strategy rather than by introducing charges.
A report to the committee said that there was “significant concern” about the quality of cleaning and maintenance at the 36 public toilets and the lack of improvements.
In October 2018, councillors backed a 30p charge to help cover the cost of improving 11 toilets in Brighton and Hove – Royal Pavilion Gardens, Black Rock, Goldstone Villas, Hove Lagoon, the King Alfred, King’s Esplanade, Lower Promenade East, Lower Promenade West, Peter Pan’s Playground, the Royal Pavilion Gardens, the Colonnade and Western Esplanade.
The report said: “The current delivery model for the cleaning and maintenance of public toilets has not proved to be as effective as anticipated.
“This has been partly due to the contractual arrangements and partly due to the age and condition of many of the public toilets.
“A lot of work has taken place over the past 18 months to improve the contractual arrangements but, in order to ensure that the most effective delivery model is in place, a review of options has been undertaken.”
It found that Healthmatic had not invested any money or carried out any refurbishment.
The current maintenance budget for public toilets is £772,000.
Bringing the service in-house is expected to cost £875,000, which is £103,000 over budget. The total is likely to be reviewed when the council sets its budget next year.
Whatever option councillors choose, Cityclean would look to work with “partners” to manage the facilities on behalf of the council, as has happened at Aldrington Rec and Dyke Road Park.
Refurbishing the toilets is expected to cost £2.7 million. The council said that the sum was not based on a detailed survey but a general appraisal by the council’s property and design team.
Improving the facilities would result in savings on utilities such as water and allow the council to improve disabled facilities.
The report said: “In addition to improving the standard of the sites, Cityclean will look to take the opportunity to improve disabled and Changing Places facilities, as well as the installation of anti-social behaviour preventative measures.
“It is estimated that the introduction of Changing Places facilities will cost approximately an additional £370,000.
“Following analysis by property and design, most sites are too small. This means a horizontal extension would be required which might not be feasible due to space restrictions, is expensive and time-consuming and would require planning applications.
“Nevertheless, options for Changing Places facilities will be considered on a site-by-site basis.”
The Policy and Resources Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall from 4pm tomorrow (Thursday 1 July). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
