Eye toilets in Cross Street to be refurbished

A £40,000 refurbishment of a town’s toilet block is set to go ahead.

Eye toilets, which have been closed for more than four years, will be refurbished and reopened within the next 12 months.

After the facilities in Cross Street were closed by Mid Suffolk District Council in 2015, Eye Town Council requested funding to see the toilets reopened.

“Originally, the plan was to just to do the disabled toilets, which desperately need refurbishment and which was the only functioning public toilet,” said town councillor Peter Gould.

“People are currently using cafés and pubs – and a lot of people are crossing their legs.”

Work is set to start on the disabled toilets shortly, as the town council continues to look at the short, medium and long-term infrastructure needs of the town, said Cllr Gould.

He said: “Eye is a growing town and it’s scheduled to have quite a bit of housing growth in the future.

“It’s becoming more successful as a place for tourism, with an increasing number of visitors, so we need to be able to offer people the right kind of facilities.

“It would be nice to have it all done for the open gardens weekend in June.”

The £40,000 revamp will include new fittings, updated pipework and electrics and baby changing facilities in both the male and female toilets. The toilets will be free of charge.

“There is a discussion between the town and district council about long-term responsibility. But, in terms of the running costs and routine maintenance, that will fall on the town council to take care of,” added Cllr Gould.