THIS is in response to Ron Wood’s letter (Letters 6 April), in which he questions the real reason why TVBC did not want to hold a public consultation in respect of the toilets in the George Yard car park.

Since we learnt of the proposed demolition last year, my husband and I have attended and spoken at four council meetings (planning, full council and two cabinet meetings) where the toilets were discussed and decided upon. I have also submitted a number of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, which TVBC are obliged to answer truthfully.

Cllr Phil North has always maintained that the toilets were demolished due to “persistent” drug abuse. However, as a result of one of my FOI requests, although drug abuse was persistent prior to the employment of the security guard, there was only one reported incident during the year of his employment, which TVBC deems to be an acceptable level in the Community Toilet Scheme (CTS) premises. So, their publicised reason for demolition appears to be untrue.

Also, at their planning meeting in January, Cllr David Drew stated that the toilets could not be converted and Cllr Phil North stated they were not suitable for conversion without considerable expense. Both contradict one another and the photographic evidence we presented to them upon demolition proves that the toilet block had cavity walls and were therefore ‘suitable’ for conversion and ‘without’ considerable expense.

At the Cabinet meeting on 14 February, Jennifer Underwood presented her findings regarding the CTS and stated that she, as a wheelchairbound person, could not enter any of the premises unassisted.

Cabinet members then resumed their meeting and clearly ignored what Jennifer had just said as Cllr Peter Giddings stated that, “the CTS is working well,” and Cllr Phil North seconded it. Cllr Phil North also rubbished our 5,000 signature petition and stated that TVBC have received no official complaints about the CTS. They now have over 500 official complaints, but they too have been ignored. The hypocrisy of TVBC is such that they quickly acted on a 1,000 signature ‘Changing Places’ petition, which was carried out by a councillor’s daughter, and supported the 5,000-signature petition for M&S, yet they rubbished the 5,000 signature petition to save Andover public toilets, saying that the people didn’t know what they were signing.

We also recently stumbled across an internal Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSCOM) email from their chairman, Cllr Chris Lynn (dated 16 October), in which he stated that, “the CTS is not working well for the disabled.”

So, TVBC have known about the inadequacy of the CTS since October and they have done nothing to alleviate the problem since then. In fact, they denied the existence of this email when stating, “the CTS is working well” at the subsequent planning, cabinet and full council meetings in order to justify demolition of the George Yard car park toilets and we were unaware of the existence of the OSCOM email at that time.

I recently questioned the TVBC tender process, regarding the employment of a contractor to carry out the demolition works, via a FOI request. TVBC publicised the amount quoted to demolish the toilets as £19,000 but TVBC have now confirmed that the winning bid actually quoted £23,490. I asked which other companies, apart from the winning contractor, submitted bids and how much each of them quoted, but both questions were ignored and are now with their legal department.

TVBC confirmed that companies were invited to submit their tender bids on 24 August, that the winning bid was selected on 26 February and that work started on 1 March, which begs the question, why were they invited to bid back in August when the decision to demolish was not made until 14 February at their Cabinet meeting?

Cllr Nick Adams-King has recently confirmed to me, in an email, that the decision to demolish the toilets was made long before my husband and I became involved, which was in November, so it seems the decision to demolish was made in June/July, just before the toilet block was closed. However, there is no record of Cabinet making this decision back then and they are the only ones who can lawfully make such decisions.

Indeed, at the Planning meeting in January, Cllr Phil North said that the decision to demolish the toilets has not yet been made. So who is telling the truth? Cllr Nick Adams-King (Deputy Leader of the Council) or Cllr Phil North (Leader of the Council)?

Joanne Coole, Hill View, Upper Clatford.

[Editor’s note: The second half of the letter received from Joanne Coole has been held over to a future issue of the Advertiser]