Work starting to replace park's toilet facilities

The current building at Elmore Park will be demolished and a new toilet block installed in the coming weeks, a senior Cannock Chase councillor confirmed on Wednesday.

The work follows a long-running campaign to update the facilities and make them more accessible at the Green Flag-winning Rugeley park. In November 2019 a petition signed by more than 850 people was presented to a full Cannock Chase Council meeting to highlight poor conditions and accessibility problems for park visitors with mobility issues.

Last year the authority’s previous administration earmarked £110,000 towards the project. And at Wednesday’s full council meeting former leader Olivia Lyons, now the opposition group leader, asked if the work was still on track.

She said: “The previous Conservative-led council approved works and funding to replace Elmore Park toilets as it is not accessible for wheelchair users, families with pushchairs and has no running water.

“Prior to the change of administration in May, proposals were drawn up for the new toilets to be designed to include baby changing facilities, to be fully accessible and to meet the requirements of a low carbon future. That tendering process has now completed and the plan was for the old toilet block to be demolished and a new fabricated toilet block installed.

“Please can Councillor John Preece, Cabinet Member for Parks, Culture and Heritage, confirm that this Labour and Green Coalition are following the previous Conservative Cabinet’s plan and work is still on track to be completed in October?”

Councillor Preece responded: “I can confirm that the contract to install a new toilet block has been signed; the contractor is Healthmatic Ltd and the contract start date is the 4th September. The contract allows for a 12 week period, and so the estimated end of the contract will be the 26th November, as per the contract.

“The project will involve the prefabrication of the toilet block offsite, and therefore although the prefabrication works will be underway not much will be seen on site until the demolition of the toilet block and the installation of the unit and associated works. We anticipate that the toilets will be demolished around mid to late October.

“The block will have one accessible toilet and one standard toilet, with a service unit situated behind the standard toilet. This will hopefully draw to a conclusion a renovation project that was first put into the council’s work schedule at the cabinet meeting on the 30th January 2020 following a petition, when former councillor Christine Mitchell moved the report and I was proud to have supported as a cabinet member, and it’s fitting that a project whose foundations were laid under a Labour administration now gets to be completed under a Labour and Green Administration.

Councillor Preece questioned Councillor Lyons’ reference to an October completion date however. He said: “I have checked the Cabinet report of 25th August 2022 and could see no completion date was given. I also checked on the official press releases and could not see there that any mentioned of an October deadline either.

“I then asked officers who confirmed to me that no October completion date was given by them. In fact, the only mention of an October deadline in any public document or communication was via yours and other Conservative councillors’ social media pages.

“Although the development design has led to only one of the two toilets being accessible, this was confirmed as accepted by the previous administration in March 2023, and is supported by the current administration. The contract has now been let and the works will proceed this autumn, for which this administration is supportive of council officers managing the contract in the best interests of the council.”