A BID to see public toilets at Poole's Baiter Park reopened has failed.

At a packed and lively meeting this evening, opposition councillors put forward a motion calling on portfolio holder Cllr John Rampton to either re-open the facilities or provide a temporary replacement during the summer.

However, members of the place overview and scrutiny committee voted narrowly to reject the plan, via the chairman's casting vote.

Protesters outside the Civic Centre before the meeting appeared to be getting a lot of support from passing motorists

Cllr Rampton addressed the meeting, saying: "This talk of the committee opening Baiter Park toilets is saying we don't want you to spend this money on other people, we want you to spend it on what we want.

"That money buys me 1,400 hours of domiciliary care. The real vulnerable people in our community are not running around Baiter Park, they cannot even get to Baiter Park."

Liberal Democrat councillor Mike Brooke, one of those who proposed the motion, drew upon the example of his late mother who had Parkinson's disease to justify the re-opening.

"It would have taken her something like 20 or 25 minutes with help from my father to reach the nearest toilets from Baiter Park," he said.

"Think of the indignity it places on someone in the position of having to urinate themselves or having to squat somewhere.

"This (closure) is just a totally irrational and illogical decision as far as Baiter is concerned."

Cllr Anne Stribley, who opposed the re-opening, said Borough of Poole had to save £37.6 million by 2020, but drew an indignant reaction from the public gallery when she suggested disabled people "make provision before going out", citing her own experiences with members of her family.

However, Cllr Brooke said: "What the closure of Baiter toilets is doing is denying the right of some Poole residents of using one of our primary park areas."

Members also cited the provision of 22 "better and cleaner" community toilets in the town, and the quoted £13,970 cost of essential repairs to bring the Baiter block back into use as reasons for refusal.

The meeting also heard a petition for the Baiter toilets to be reopened from Mark Randall, who lives nearby.

Bringing a jar of flies into the meeting, he told councillors he had on several occasions seen people relieving themselves outside the block, leaving urine and faeces and causing insects to enter his home.

Members were told the council has consulted Public Health England and been informed that "urine is relatively harmless and indiscriminate urination is generally not a health hazard".

Shaun Robson, the council's head of environment, acknowledged that faeces had been found by the Baiter toilets, but only on three occasions.

Councillors also voted by seven to three against a demand that toilet demolitions be halted until a review of the community toilet scheme is conducted.

Borough of Poole has "mothballed" the Baiter toilets and there are no plans for its demolition. Currently only the Seaview and Poole Road toilets are earmarked for demolition.

Members voted unanimously in favour of the provision of better signage for the community facilities, which will be reviewed by the same committee in the autumn.

More than 200 questions from members of the public were submitted for the meeting.