The debate over what should happen to the public toilets on Brook Road and Station Road continues following the Budleigh Salterton Town Council meeting on Monday (July, 25).

The town council said the terms sent to them by East Devon Council were not acceptable, they will now go back to them and renegotiate.

As the toilets on Station Road are right outside a busy bus stop, councillors expressed that people coming off coaches and uses who are elderly need somewhere to go 'for health reasons'.

The term included both toilets, but councillors will also have to decide whether to take on just Brook Road, or both.

The current terms included a 99-year lease, £1 a year which would put maintenance, cleaning and repair costs of toilets on Brook Road and Station Road in the hands of the town council.

Councillor Robert Harris said: “Reading through this document, I’m very unhappy with it, it, we are being asked to take on a 99-year lease which is a long-term agreement but the terms they are proposing are that of a 10- or 20-year lease.

"We are being asked to take on full repair responsibilities possibly at a considerable expense. We are locking ourselves into that lease, with no breakthrough or get out sometime in the future.”

Councillor Lynda Evans said: “I have extreme worries, as you all know I want toilets in the town so if I have to make the choice, I’d like the Station Road toilets kept open but I'd rather pay East Devon for maintenance of them and leave them the ownership as well.”

Councillor Alan Jones added: “I’m not in favour of losing Brook Road, I’d like to see us hand the money over to East Devon, and they sort out the maintenance and repair costs.”

The town council also agreed to consult other parish and town councils in East Devon to see if they have been sent the same ‘outrageous document', setting out terms of the transfer, from East Devon.

Budleigh Salterton Town Council voted unanimously to go back to East Devon District Council to renegotiate the terms set out on the document and still consider taking the running of the toilets into their own hands.