A bum wrap!

City Hall had a wee bit of bad news this week.

The public toilets on Grand Parade won’t be reopening anytime soon so make sure you don’t get caught short like City Hall seem to have been, as they are struggling to find the funds to replace them

People have had their knickers in a twist about their closure for several months and at a Cork City Council meeting on Monday management said they had come to the end of their life.

This is from mechanical wear and tear, since their opening in 2008, as well as several instances of vandalism and protracted periods of being out-of-order, which had been occurring more and more frequently.

Valerie O’Sullivan, Director of Operations, said: “The satisfactory sourcing of new parts has proven unsuccessful to date. Cork City Council is aware that the level and standard of service provided within the public toilets at the Grand Parade had begun to fall short of what Cork City Council, and members of the public, should expect from such a facility and hence, took the decision to close them.”

Full replacement of the facility has been considered, but would be extremely costly and is not currently provided for within the Council’s budget. In addition, any investment in reopening the toilets must be based on the actual level of demand for such a facility from the general public, Ms O’Sullivan said.

She added: “Considering that the toilets had been experiencing increase levels of anti-social behaviour in recent years, it is the Council’s understanding that actual public demand for the facility had waned. Thus, in the absence of significant public demand, there is no immediate justification for the significant investment required to reopen the toilets. Cork City Council will continue to monitor this situation.”