The Ridings to drastically reduce public toilet opening hours due to costs
The Ridings Centre has annouced that it has had to take the “drastic step” of reducing its public toilet opening hours, due to rising costs.
The toilets, which are located on the lower mall opposite Morrisons, will now be open from 11am to 2pm, Monday to Sunday.
Originally, they were open from 7am to 10pm each day however, the centre stated that the operating cost of these toilets has now exceeded £300,000 per year.
A spokesperson for The Ridings said: “As I am sure you can appreciate, this is a cost we and our businesses in the centre cannot continue to bear.
"We believe that the provision of public toilets should be a responsibility not just of ourselves and other businesses in the city centre, but also of the council itself.
“We are disappointed that there are no council-run public toilets in the city centre.
“We do believe that by keeping our toilets open seven days a week at the peak time for the centre, we are still playing our part in providing this service to the visitors of Wakefield.”
In response, Coun Michael Graham called the new opening hours a “real issue for many people”, stating that “three hours a day is very limited”.
The Express contacted Wakefield Council but said they would not be commenting.