Borth residents are set to decide the fate of the village’s public toilets as the council has called a public meeting.

Residents are to discuss how much they’d be willing to spend to keep their public toilets open, after Ceredigion County Council announced it may have to stop running public toilet facilities across the county.

The toilets may risk closure if the community chooses not to act at the meeting called for Monday 20 January at 6.30pm at the community hall.

The announcement read: “Borth Community Council invites all members of the public to attend this meeting, share their views, and learn more about the potential financial impact of taking over the management of the public toilets.

“We believe it is important to understand how this decision could affect local ratepayers.

“Ceredigion County Council [recently] informed Borth Community Council of their intention to "offer" the management of the public toilets to the community.

“This could take several forms, including a Service Level Agreement, a full takeover, or maintaining the status quo, where Ceredigion might close both sets of public toilets in the village due to ongoing cost-saving measures.”

Some residents are concerned it would impact the village’s businesses and tourist trade and its beach's blue flag status, which is awarded to clean and high-quality beaches.

Others are concerned that the added responsibility would significantly impact the residents' council tax, with County Councillor Hugh Hughes adding: “ We're talking about quite a sizeable amount of money to run both sets of toilets all year round."

In early 2024 Ceredigion wrote to all community and town councils asking them to take over the running of their 33 public toilet facilities in a bid to strip down its expenditure.

According to the council, there is a £200,000 deficit between the cost to run the county’s toilets and how much they make in income.

Aberaeron Town Council have already announced it cannot take over its four toilets, whilst Aberystwyth Town Council is in talks to eventually take over the running of the town’s three public toilets.

Powys County Council handed over responsibility for public toilets to town councils that would take them several years ago, with Machynlleth Town Council only this month reopening its toilets after consistent vandalism forced them to close.

This has also been an issue in Borth - in 2022 a spate of vandalism swept the village causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to one of the public toilets, with several windows smashed and a door handle ripped off.