Lime green colour scheme for public toilets causes debate at Oakham Town Council

A decision to decorate the inside of a public toilet green has led to division within Oakham Town Council.

Councillor Martin Brookes says the authority did not follow correct procedure last week (April 9) when a decision to internally decorate the public toilets in a lime green and black scheme was decided.

The town council is spending more than £120,000 to refurbish the public conveniences in Church Street, which were built 20 years ago. Contractor Metcalfe Ltd was awarded the contract earlier this year and have already started the work which includes new urinals, tiling, lighting, electric flushes and hand driers.

Councillor Brookes says that the matter was not on the agenda before an informal vote took place following an exempt session of the council.

He said: “We are a parish council and regulations say every decision must be made by the full council. We shouldn’t be given papers that are not related to an agenda item. It is too casual. You cannot make decisions outside of the meeting.”

He said since he was co-opted on to the town council several months ago, he has had issue with a number of things that authority has done, such as the council retrospectively agreeing payments.

He said: “I am trying to improve it. I see it as a challenge. The progress of improvement is happening too slowly.”

Coun Brookes said there was a whole swatch of colours that could have been chosen and he personally did not care what colour the toilets are, but thinks a colour other than white will be harder to maintain and could become stained and discoloured more easily.

Chairman of the council Paul Ainsley said the decision had to be made and there was not time to follow the procedure which would have put it on the council agenda.

He said: “Immediately following full council we had a discussion with all the full council and it was agreed to go with that colour scheme.

“We did the best we could under difficult circumstances.”

He said there would have been a penalty if the decision had not been made and the contractor needed to acquire the paint quickly. He said there was not time to wait until the next meeting in May to make the decision.

He said he was happy with the colour scheme, as are a number of other councillors.