A TOWN council has been accused of being ‘mean spirited’ after it was decided public toilets in Beaconsfield Old Town should be kept closed during the Country Fayre.

After no agreement was reached between the council and the fayre committee, the decision for them to remain closed was made.

To ensure provisions were met on-site portable toilets were maintained by the Beaconsfield Women’s Institute.

Deborah Sanders, president of the town’s WI, said: “I think we do have a toilet problem, when South Bucks District Council give a licence for the fayre and other such things they should ensure there is adequate toilets.

“Personally, I think it is very mean spirited of the town council not to open them to enhance this community event, like they should do.

“As I see it, we pay our precept to ensure we have the community facilities we need.”

However, council leader Alan Walters said after an incident two years ago, they needed funding for someone to maintain the facilities.

He said: “Up until two years ago the toilets were always left open, but they were trashed and they had to remain closed for the Tuesday market the following day.

“Last year the fayre committee agreed to pay a fee to ensure they were maintained, but they decided against that this year.

“We have always said if people are happy to maintain them on the day we are happy to have them open, but they told the council there were not enough volunteers to help.

“We are not statutorily obliged to provide toilet facilities but we are happy to work with the committee as long as an agreement is made in advance.”

Simon Woolf, of the fayre committee, said: “This year we had a couple of sponsors who gave us £750 in total as a general donation to cover the various expenses that came to around £750 and this included the cost of the portable toilets.”

He added because we only had part time volunteers we were not able to man the public toilets, and unfortunately we were not able to cover the cost of a contractor because we did not have enough sponsorship money.