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Malvern Gazette 17th March 2006
'Vote to close loos or we're finished' A LEAKED email has revealed that the district council's ruling party fears it will be `finished' if a decision to close public toilets in Malvern, Upton and Tenbury Wells is reversed. The Malvern Gazette has obtained a copy of an email sent to Liberal Democrat members by Coun Clive Smith urging them to attend a meeting where the decision to close the loos will again be debated. In it, Coun Smith says he is passing on a message from council leader Diane Rayner. "It is absolutely VITAL that we are at maximum strength in order to bury this once and for all and maintain the confidence of everyone at MHDC that we can deliver, or we will be finished as an administration," it says. "Therefore, please ensure you are there on the night. I don't want to have to go around confiscating passports etc." The revelation comes after Coun Mary Wilkinson gained enough support to force a review of the decision to shut the toilets at a special council meeting on April 3. Coun Smith said Lib Dem party members were not forced, or `whipped', into voting with the party when the council decided to close the toilets earlier this month, as two Lib Dem councillors voted against the plans. "The only block vote for the closure was the Conservatives," he said. "Our vote is never whipped. We vote with our conscience." Asked whether the e-mail's strong language could be seen as forcing members to tow the party line, Coun Smith said: "I was merely pointing out that our administration would be in severe difficulties if we lost that vote. The administration relies on having the confidence of officers and the people that elected them to deliver what we deliver." Coun Paul Cumming, who leads the council's Conservative members, said he could not understand why Lib Dems were so determined to close the toilets in the face of public opinion to save annual running costs of £4,000, when they were prepared to spend £8 million on new council offices. The toilets that the council voted to close - Edith Walk and Victoria Road in Malvern, Lower High Street in Upton and Market Street in Tenbury Wells - are currently boarded up. Letters: Back concern with cash Elsewhere, the length and breadth of the country, parish and town councils, quite as much as district councils, provide and maintain public conveniences. In fact, Malvern Town Council is itself responsible for the upkeep of the facility at Victoria Road, Malvern Link. So why does it not take on the Edith Walk toilets as well? Why do not Tenbury and Upton Town Councils take on the second conveniences in their centres, if they feel so strongly that the district council's provision of just one high quality toilet per settlement is insufficient? All three town councils already spend significant sums on the provision of various amenities and services which, like public conveniences, benefit visitors and tourists quite as much as their own citizens. Moreover, the whole tide of Government thinking now is about decentralisation; about parish and town councils becoming more actively engaged in town-level service responsibilities, in promoting and supporting local trade and tourism, in providing local amenities and in exercising community leadership at this level. It is a pity that our town councils seem not to see things quite this way. Certainly they have declined to `put their money where their mouth is' in relation to public toilets, despite being given ample opportunity by the district council. coun John W Raine (West Ward, MHDC) Brockhill Road, West Malvern Voters views are not considered Each of the loos in question were definitely needed, in the position where they were situated. It is quite obvious the Lib Dems closed them all. So what is the point of voting Lib Dem when they do not consider the views of the voters they represent in the first place. EILEEN JONES, Geraldine Road, Malvern |