FOUR seafront toilet blocks across the conurbation are being refurbished this winter in a £300,000 investment.

The improvements are being delivered to the facilities at Bournemouth West, between Happyland Amusements and West Beach restaurant, Bournemouth East, next to Harry Ramsden’s fish and chip shop, Sandbanks, next to the car park near the beach office, and Mudeford Sandbank.

BCP Council is funding the work, which started at some sites last week, through Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) – contributions obtained from firms for development projects.

The refurbishments across the four blocks should be completed by spring next year in time for Easter.

Bournemouth Echo: The toilet block at Mudeford SandbankThe toilet block at Mudeford Sandbank (Image: Newsquest)

Cllr Beverley Dunlop, portfolio holder for tourism, culture and vibrant places, said: “The toilet blocks at Sandbanks, Bournemouth West, Bournemouth East and Mudeford Sandbank see a huge amount of footfall, especially in the summer months, and are to benefit from refurbishment.

“To improve these facilities, we’re using around £300,000 from our Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) fund. This is our levy on new developments in our area, which generates funds that are then earmarked for reinvestment back into the local community.

“Works to the toilet blocks include updating buildings and reconfiguring spaces to improve efficiency and sustainability.

Bournemouth Echo:

“They were due to begin last week, so some toilets will be closed during this time. We aim to have these sites open again and ready for Easter 2023.”

A council report on the seasonal response this summer said additional funding was made available to provide additional cleaning schedules for the facilities most often used by visitors given the “significant escalation” in their use during peak periods.

Andrew Brown, BCP Council’s seafront operations manager, told a recent scrutiny committee meeting there are around 30 seafront toilet blocks across the conurbation.

Bournemouth Echo:

“We have a reasonably large toilet provision across the seafront and there will always be, as with all of the resources on the seafront, pinch points where just simply even if we had double the resource we would have huge challenges dealing with the number of visitors,” Mr Brown said.

“For the most part our facilities over the course of the summer were cleaned, well-managed and probably met the demands for the vast majority of our beach users.”