Assynt Community Council pans replacement toilet at Achmelvich beach: Unisex facility is branded 'totally inadequate'
Assynt Community Council is at odds with the local authority over the provision of public toilets at a local beauty spot in north west Sutherland visited by thousands of people every year.
The community council is protesting over the replacement of a dilapidated toilet block at Achmelvich beach car park with a single, second-hand, unisex cubicle, which has yet to open.
It says a single toilet is totally inadequate for the number of visitors to the scenic area during the summer season and as a result people will be forced to relieve themselves outdoors.
Secretary and spokesman Phil Jones said: “The car park is very popular with visitors on the NC500 tourism route looking to spend some time enjoying the magnificent beach. Last summer there were days when as many as 150 vehicles were there at any one time - many carrying young families.
“Assynt Community Council believes the very notion of a single toilet cubicle coping with the volume of customers at the height of the season is ludicrous and we feel arrangements should have been made before now for more adequate facilities to be made available.”
The dispute is the latest twist in a long running saga involving public toilets across Sutherland in recent years with a number previously put under threat of closure in a budget saving exercise.
The toilet block at the Achmelvich visitor “hot spot” closed after the summer season last year and the local authority took the decision not to reopen it this year, saying the structure was “failing” with the exterior rotting. It has now been taken away.
Instead, long-standing plans to replace the block with a transportable toilet unit from Gairloch beach were activated. The unit was transported from Gairloch to Achmelvich by a contractor a week ago.
It is now in situ on a pre-prepared concrete pad, but remains closed as services have yet to be connected to it, meaning there is currently no public toilet provision at Achmelvich.
Mr Jones said: “There have already been posts on social media from visitors and the long-suffering residents of Achmelvich reporting incidents of outdoor or wild toileting on the beach and on the machair. Some have even witnessed people relieving themselves in full view of their kitchen window.
“Aside from the unsavoury element of this practice and the potential harm to livestock and to what is already a fragile habitat, we feel this could present a serious public health issue if allowed to continue.”
Mr Jones added: “The community council’s concerns have been passed on to Highland Council’s environmental health department in the hope they can put pressure on the amenities department to address this issue as a matter of urgency, given that the holiday season will begin in earnest within the next few weeks.”
Community councillors are also annoyed that they were not informed either of the closure of the old toilets nor kept up to date with the arrival of the new unit.
A spokesman for Highland Council said: “Toilet provision is not a statutory function and the unisex toilet provision from Gairloch is all we are able to provide. The council does not have a budget for anything else at this time.”
