No more toilets in the pipeline for Buxton

There are public loos on the Market Place and Sylvan car park, and toilets in Waitrose and Coffee Delight in The Springs Shopping Centre.

However, many feel this is not enough and would like a more public-style facility in the precinct.

Amanda Cirillo, 55, from Moorcroft, said: “I come out with my 95-year-old mother-in-law and the toilets are at opposite ends of town so you have to factor that in timewise if you need to go.”

She added: “There are toilets in Waitrose, but they always seem out of order and it isn’t fair on the staff to have so many people using the toilets but not buying anything.”

The Springs shopping centre has been open 30 years and always relied on customer toilets in shops.

Centre manager Carlon Stewart said: “Using the toilets in the shops has never been a problem before, but we are constantly looking to improve our facilities and I will mention this at a next meeting to see if anything can be done.”

Donna Dawidowicz, 29 from New Mills ,does not think there is any problem with the loos. She said: “I don’t find going to the toilet in town a problem - there are toilets available in shops if you just ask.”

New mum Katie Garrigan, 30, from Buxton, was out shopping with four-week-old Cody.

She said: “I haven’t used the public toilets with Cody yet and I don’t think I will as they are not very clean.

“I would rather pay for a coffee and then use the loo in a shop .”

Tanith Allsop, 24, is the assistant manager at Caffè Nero which is opposite the shopping centre.

She said: “We are the public toilets for Buxton.

“We never say no to people using the toilet, but there are days when the queue for the loo is longer than the queue for coffee.”

She added: “There are so many empty shops in the precinct, it would be an idea to open one of those up and convert it into loos so people don’t have to go out of their way or into other shops and use the loo.

“It is embarrassing when people from coach parties come in asking where the toilets are and you have to tell them that there are loos but nothing near the shopping centre.”

There are other facilities available in Buxton in the Pavilion Gardens car park and boating lake, along with those at Buxton cemetery, all of which are owned by High Peak Borough Council.

A spokesperson for the council said: “The council does not have any plans at this stage to increase the number of public toilets, and provision of facilities in the shopping centres would be a matter for the owners.”