Absolutely right, Vic. Toilets in shops are exactly the sort of get out of jail card Cllr Collor would have been praying for in the recent "Toiletgate" disgrace. No letting DDC off the hook from me over this one - public toilets are essential public services, end of.
I'm not sure that Paul W's original post was intended as an extension of the toilets row, though, more an illustration that DDC's ills are not unique, and a good point was well made. It's how different councils respond to the challenge that is the crux of the matter; whilst I'm not arrogant enough to suggest that I have the answers to challenges that many up and down the country are coming to terms with in the most difficult economic times since God alone knows when - plainly, I don't - I do think that we need better thinking processes all round. Council services are becoming more expensive to run every year and increasing Council Tax charges in order to cope is becoimng increasingly difficult from a political viewpoint, so where does it all end? Taken to the nth degree, after all the services have been cut, after all the staff have been laid off, the Council Tax will serve to pay for nothing but the Council itself. Somewhere along the line, something radical has to happen if we are to keep any public services at all: what that something is, only time will tell, but it is not easy job to try to fathom out all the public sector's difficulties, and those that try to do so invariably cop for some unjustified criticism.
Some of that criticism is justified, however. The toilets thing, for example...........
