SOUTH Hams Council have turned off the water supply in the Quay toilets’ sinks and have added hand sanitisers.

Suspicions that the supply was turned off in order to save money on water have been rebuffed by the council, who say the reason for the lack of water is due to a spate of vandalism in the toilets.

A whistleblower, who wished to remain anonymous, forwarded us a memo used by South Hams Council’s customer services to inform complainants, which read: ‘The public conveniences are extremely costly to run and we are having to identify a number of savings to ensure that the large number of facilities we currently provide remain.

‘We have therefore identified a number of cost saving measures that we could introduce to reduce costs, repairs etc. One of those identified was to introduce hand sanitiser instead of having large number of sinks and expensive wallgate systems.

‘The current wallgates we have cost well over £1000 to replace and have costly service charges associated with them (£8000 per annum). The washing facilities are often abused with basins being smashed, plumbing broken, sinks blocked etc.

‘The water supply is often used other than the purpose of hand washing. Therefore, to reduce the maintenance costs and also to save on water costs we are trialing the idea of introducing hand sanitisers in our toilets.

‘Last week some of the wallgates went wrong which meant this idea was accelerated. This is only a trial and the water supply has only been cut off at the above toilets only and not at any other toilets at this current moment.’

When asked about this however, a spokesman for South Hams District Council, said: ‘Following a spate of vandalism in the public toilets on the Quay in Kingsbridge, we have temporarily turned off the water to the sinks and installed hand sanitisers. This is just a temporary measure which while we work to restore the water supply.

‘Vandalism in our public conveniences has been a really big problem for us recently. We regularly see wilful damage done to the sinks and the wall units, which dispense soap and water. We often see basins smashed and plumbing broken.

‘We are exploring ideas for how can reduce the cost of these repairs and prevent the taxpayer from footing the bill for vandalism. One option could be to reduce the number of sinks and wall units at each toilet block.

‘However, this would not be done without public consultation and we would not permanently turn off the water where there are baby changing facilities.’

The water is expected to be turned back on in the next few days.