Fury over Flintshire Council’s plans to close public toilets without consultation
Plans by Flintshire County Council to withdraw funding for the county’s last remaining public toilets have sparked strong opposition from residents, councillors, and community groups.
Toilets in Mold, Holywell, and Talacre are set to close in September after the Labour-Independent coalition decided to remove the £59,000 allocation from the 2025/2026 budget.
Opposition councillors have called a special County Council meeting for Wednesday, 7th August, aiming to reverse the decision. They criticised the Council for making the move without public consultation, scrutiny, or an equality impact assessment.
Flintshire Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Andrew Parkhurst, who tabled a notice of motion, said the closures would disproportionately affect vulnerable groups including the elderly, disabled, and families with young children.
“We warned the Labour-led Cabinet during the last budget-setting that closing public toilets in Mold, Holywell and Talacre would harm residents,” he said. “Thanks to pressure from the Welsh Liberal Democrats in the Senedd, Flintshire received an extra £1.2m in Welsh Government funding. Using just 5% of that uplift could have kept these toilets open. Labour and their Independent coalition partners chose not to listen – we’ll continue fighting this short-sighted policy at every stage.”
Flintshire People’s Voice leader Cllr Sam Swash criticised the council’s priorities, pointing to a 9.5% Council Tax rise alongside cuts to public services.
“They say they can’t afford the £59,000 to keep public toilets open, yet they’ve found £40,000 to create two new Cabinet posts for themselves, and another £20,000 for new ‘Welcome to Flintshire’ signs,” he said. “It is a political choice to cut these essential services while hiking Council Tax and wasting money on vanity projects.”
The Council’s Chief Officer for Streetscene and Transportation, Katie Wilby, said Flintshire was “seeking expressions of interest” from town and community councils to take over responsibility for the facilities.
However, Mold Town Council confirmed they had not been contacted about any potential transfer.
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