The Council closed West Pier toilets in order to carry out large scale improvement works and they currently remain closed.
The toilets get used by thousands of people each year and have not been fully renovated for a decade. The works involve:
- a full strip out
- re-decoration
- re-tiling
- new electrics
- plumbing
- replacing the mechanical hand wash stations (which routinely broke down) with sinks and sensor taps and pouring a new solid floor
When completed, we hope the loos will be a pleasure to use. Local people will also recall that we are installing a payment system for this site and will be gradually rolling this out to other sites. This reflects the cost of running the toilets in town, which was over £200,000 in 2022 alone. Funds collected from future charges will be fully re-invested back into the town’s public conveniences so we can ensure that they remain modern and clean.
In a seaside town like St Ives, the Council fully appreciate the importance of good public toilets and that’s the reason for the scale of the works. Equally, we understand the impact of having one site closed for a long period, but this is unavoidable. Some of the work has been completed by our team, but we have also needed to rely on contractors and, unfortunately, we have experienced difficulties and delays. This has meant that our programme is behind schedule, as we await the installation of the floor and equipment. The toilets will need to remain closed whilst we await the final contractor works and will not re-open until late June.
The Council sincerely apologises for the extended closure, and fully regrets the impact on the local community and visitors alike. However, we continue to operate public toilets at the Sloop, Smeatons Pier, Dove Street, Porthgwidden, Porthminster (together with sites operated by businesses at Porthmeor and Trenwith and our toilets at Longstone in Carbis Bay). We are confident, therefore, that there will be full access to public facilities during the next few weeks. The facilities will be open again well before the beginning of the school holidays and we hope that everyone will benefit from the quality of the new facilities.
Thank you for your continued patience and understanding.
