The long-anticipated reopening of Machynlleth’s public toilets has stalled over a debate on who will pay for their upkeep.

The public toilets were closed in January 2023 due to repeated vandalism, after the town council was unable to keep up with the cost of repairs.

This summer a working group obtained £60,000 PAVO funding to replace the units with vandal-proof stainless steel, which is to be completed this week.

However the opening date has yet to be announced after it could not be agreed on how to pay for the upkeep.

In the full council meeting on 25 November, Councillor Gareth Jones said: “I want to see them open too, we all do.

“But Machynlleth people stop me and ask whose going to pay for them.

“We’ve been assured they’re going to be sustainable financially.

“I expect that in the budget meeting there won’t be an item on there expecting the taxpayer to pay anything towards them.”

Cllr Norma McCarten, part of the toilets working group, said: “It’s always been the case that we don’t want to ask the taxpayers to pay.

“This budget is a ‘guestimate’ because we cannot guarantee on how much utilities will cost.

“We have applied for funding for payment gates and solar panels.

“Until then we propose using QR codes and payment boxes in the toilets, and donation boxes in town.

“We’ve approached businesses regarding sponsorship and are looking at events to raise money.

“We can’t guarantee the income mentioned.

“We can say its not our plan to use the council budget as a stop gap.

“I hope we’ll obtain support form external bodies to help us as a very small town shouldering a lot of large bills.”

Mayor Jeremy Paige said: “That puts us in a difficult position as we hadn’t planned to fund it.

“It puts us where we were two years ago when we shut the toilets.

“We need some realism here.

“We can’t just hope, it seems like a leap of faith.”

Cllr Kim Bryan, part of the working group, said: “I don’t know what else we can say other than we are exploring options and are committed to raising the money to make sure it doesn’t come back on the council.”

Their budget estimates the toilets costing £16,000 annually, whilst aiming to raise £10,000 through events, sponsorship, pay gates and donations.

The council moved the vote on the toilet business plan to an extra ordinary meeting on 2 December prior to the finance meeting which will discuss setting the budget for the next financial year.

Machynlleth is one of many towns faced with a difficult choice over its public toilets.

County councils across the UK have been dropping responsibility for their public toilets as a cost cutting measure in recent years, asking town councils to take up the running of the toilets.

However with Machynlleth residents already shoulder the highest council tax rates in the county, the town council is stuck as to how to keep the “desperately needed” public service open.