A majority of residents in Newtown want the public toilets to remain free, a poll by newtown.wales has revealed.

A poll, which was comissioned by newtown.wales has revealed that 69% of respondents would want to keep public toilets in Newtown free at the point of use.

The poll came as Newtown & Llanllwchaiarn Town Council, who runs both sets of public toilets, was scheduled to hold a meeting to discuss the future of toilet provision in the town.

Of the 31% of respondents who said they would pay, the most common amount they would pay would be 20p.

When asked if the town council should keep both sets of toilets - one at the Back Lane car park and one at the Gravel car park, 80% of respondents voted in favour of both sets of toilets.

A wide split of respondents across the town was reported, with the largest amount of respondents being from the Newtown South ward.

This scheduled Town Council meeting instead was held behind closed doors in a working party, consisting of Cllr Val Howard, Cllr Margaret Lewington, Cllr Jack Griffin Lewis, Cllr Jackie Molloy-Davies, Cllr Darryl Gwilt, Cllr Richard White and Deputy Mayor, Cllr Mike Childs. The recommendations of the working party, which are due to be discussed at the next Services committee meeting on 14th November 2022 included:

• Obtain costings for extra / enhanced cleaning
• Recommend a price to examine toilet footfall for May / June 2023
• Research the cost to employ in-house cleaners as opposed to a cleaning contract
• Record vandalism data and monitor this data

The full findings of the poll can be found below.