A local councillor has hit out at Pembrokeshire County Council for expecting the public to spend more than a 'penny' to use toilets in Tenby.

Discussing correspondence from the authority's head of environmental services and civil contingencies, which came before a meeting of Tenby Town Council on Tuesday night, on the operations of public toilets in the town, Clr. Lawrence Blackhall said he was worried that the county council were seemingly continuing to use Tenby as a 'cash cow' for the rest of the county.

Clr. Blackhall stressed that he was concerned over the issue of further service charging increases that he felt were aimed at the town.

The letter from Richard Brown explained that the county council had tendered the operations and responsibility of public toilets in Tenby to the company Danfo (Uk) Ltd, since August of last year, who had been cleaning and maintaining the facilities as part of a 10-year contract.

"Having assessed the public toilets across the county, there are three sites within your town which have been identified for charging mechanisms to be installed; they are at Butts Field car park, Castle Beach and the multi-storey," wrote Mr. Brown.

"Income generated by charging for the use of facilities will be reinvested into public toilets across the county in order to make improvements over the life of the contract.

"No decisions have been made about where future charging mechanisms will be sited," continued Mr. Brown, adding that it was planned to have the charging mechanisms installed and ready to operate by June, with a maximum charge of 20p per use.

"I don't have a problem with a charge if it ensures that Tenby's public toilets are enhanced, and kept to an even better and cleaner standard, but we need assurances that the money raised from any charges is spent maintaining those toilets in Tenby mentioned," Clr. Blackhall told his colleagues.

"People are being asked to pay for something that was previously free, and it concerns me that the county council have looked at the provision and thought 'where can we charge and make a lot of money?' and looked at Tenby again, in the same way they have looked at increasing car parking charges in the town.

"If this is an exercise done to support everyone else in the county, then it's just not fair, and not acceptable for those in Tenby to fund other people's toilets!" he added.

Clr. Mrs. Tish Rossiter agreed, and said that she thought that when the company took over looking after the toilets in the town, the cleaning standards would improve.

"Apparently not though, it seems, as they are just in and out in seconds at the facility in Frog Street, I'm told, which is not good enough," she commented.

It was agreed that a letter be sent to the county council, asking for assurances that charges were not being brought in to fund public toilets elsewhere in the county.