Plans to demolish Chichester public loos deferred for consultation

During a meeting of the district council’s planning committee on Wednesday (June 12) members discussed the local authority’s plans for the public loos in Tower Street.

The block is reported to have structural and subsidence issues.

On Tuesday (June 11), the council’s cabinet recommended that more than £206,000 be spent demolishing it and replacing it with three direct access toilets and a pocket park.

The final decision on whether to go ahead with the plans will fall to a meeting of the full council.

The idea of demolishing the block has not gone down well with many members of the public – even if there are plans to replace it.

Alan Green, chairman of the Chichester Conservation Area Advisory Committee (CCAAC), said: “If the council are genuinely considering maintaining toilet facilities on this site, and are also genuinely committed to tacking climate change then, on the concept of embodied energy, the existing building should be retained and refurbished not demolished and rebuilt.

“Professional opinion within CCAAC is that the defects in this building are capable of being rectified.”

Henry Potter (Con, Goodwood) said he fully supported the demolition of the building.

He added: “We’ve got a bit of a chicken and egg situation here, whereby new toilets can’t be built until the old ones are demolished.

“The sooner we get this done, the sooner they can be replaced.

“There will be a period of time when they’re out of use, obviously, but then there would be a period of time when they were out of use if underpinning took place.”

While the demolition of the block would need planning permission, councillors were told that, under permitted development rights, none would be needed for the new toilets.