Extraordinary Council Meeting - Public toilets remain closed
The special council meeting on Tuesday, called to discuss re-opening the borough's closed public toilets, astonished those in the packed public gallery with a display of procedural moves designed to prevent the issues being discussed or any solutions found.
Instead the ruling RA group, whose slogan is "keep party politics out of local government" turned it into a political attack on the Coalition Government, apparently forgetting that 83% of those voting in Epsom & Ewell last May supported one or other of the Coalition partners.
In an impressive display of Lemming-like solidarity, a full turnout of RA sponsored councillors unanimously confirmed their decision not to spend any money at all on public toilets, despite the value placed upon them by residents.
Speaker after speaker repeated that they wanted to save money in order to protect the services that people value - which according to them don't include public toilets. The public gallery greeted these statements with silent dis-belief, but roundly applauded when Lib Dem councillors spoke about providing toilets by paying local businesses to share their facilities under the "community toilets" scheme.
RA councillors assured each other that businesses would allow the public to use their toilets anyway, provided that this was not advertised. How visitors in need of a convenience would know this without the helpful "Community Toilet" signs that go with council-sponsored schemes was not explained.