Shoppers and business owners have demanded the council re-open public toilets to help boost the town centre.
More than 1,300 people have signed a petition in just a few days claiming that the closure of the Peel Street facilities last year is damaging the area.
Petition co-organiser Cheryl Duffy, who runs Acorns of Lancashire cleaners on Whalley Road, claims business owners are being ‘harangued’ by ‘irate and frustrated’ customers to use their private facilities.
Cheryl said the closure of the toilets, coupled with the relocation of the Accrington bus station, has also led to footfall in the area reaching an ‘all-time low’.
The petition was hand delivered to Hyndburn council leader Miles Parkinson on Wednesday before a cabinet meeting and includes signatures from more than 120 local business owners and 1,200 residents.
Cheryl said: “I understand that legally they probably don’t need to provide us with a facility, but morally these 1,300 people have voted them to where they are and they don’t even listen to them.
“People need facilities. We’ve got the elderly and the young. I can’t physically allow people behind my counter to run upstairs. I can’t man it and I’m not insured.
“I don’t want to spend reams and reams of my business time on it but what can I do when the strength of feeling is so high and we are being ignored?
“There’s a public and a business need. We have already lost the bus station to the other side of two and now they’ve closed the toilet facilities.
“Footfall is going down and the shops are closing round there. There’s no reason for people to go round here anymore.”
The Observer revealed in July last year how the unmanned toilets were closed from Monday to Saturday amid anti-social behaviour fears, with the public being directed to use the facilities in the Market Hall and new bus station. They now just open on Sundays.
Conservative group leader and businessman Tony Dobson fears that the facilities will remain closed despite the petition. He said: “I think it’s the responsibility of a controlling group to work with the stakeholders and residents of the borough and to really listen to what they are saying and the reasons why they are saying it.
“Will they do anything about it? I don’t think the residents will get anywhere with it.”
However, Coun Parkinson said the petition will be ‘looked at and responded to’.
He said: “We understand what has been said but unfortunately the council have to make savings and look at the provision.
“Public toilets were provided for a long period but due to anti-social behaviour and the issues related to them unfortunately they had to be closed.
“The issue with public toilets is that they need someone to be employed on the premises and the cost of that with the ever decreasing council budget. There are other provisions nearby within the Market Hall, the Arndale, the new purpose-built bus station and proprietors in the area.
“If the business holders are adamant that they would want that then maybe those businesses would want to have responsibility for them in some way?
“We have limited amounts of staff now and to have staff at public toilets across the borough isn’t something the council can afford.”
