Give toilet cleaners better pay, urges councillor

The council was finding it hard to recruit people to a seasonal job to open, close and clean Brighton and Hove’s public toilets, a councillor said.

She called for better pay to make the jobs more attractive but a leading Labour councillor said that, despite the challenges, most of the vacancies had been filled.

Brighton and Hove Independent councillor Bridget Fishleigh said: “I know two of the seasonal people left because they basically said it wasn’t worth £14.50 an hour. It was quite stressful and difficult and not very pleasant.”

Brighton and Hove City Council is advertising for seasonal toilet cleaners to work 37 hours a week on a rota – four days on and four days off – for the equivalent of up to £26,824 a year.

Labour councillor Tim Rowkins, the council’s cabinet member for net zero and environmental services, said that recruiting to the toilet cleaning team was difficult.

But, out of 15 roles, there were only currently two to three vacancies, he told a meeting of the full council at Hove Town Hall.

Wages were “banded” across the council and Councillor Rowkins said that there was a “high bar” to justify offering a higher wage.

He said: “I would love to be able to double the number of staff we have in our public toilets and extend the opening hours both in the morning and in the evening.

“It is a very expensive service to run. Thankfully, we have some very willing and very well-meaning and very community-minded businesses and partners in the city.”

One of them, Babble at the Beach, on Hove seafront, had agreed to extend the opening hours of the public toilets in the new sports hub building.

And Hove Park Tennis Club had also agreed to extend the opening hours in the toilets there.

At the meeting on Thursday (23 July), Councillor Rowkins also thanked Councillor Fishleigh and her Rottingdean and West Saltdean ward colleague Mark Earthey for opening and closing the Undercliff public toilets, in Ovingdean.