Seafront Toilet Block To Be Sold As Part Of Regeneration Plans In Sandown

A seafront toilet block in a key Isle of Wight tourism area will be sold for just £1.

Councillors on the policy, finance and resources committee (PFR) yesterday (Thursday) voted for a recommendation to dispose of the Pier Street Regeneration Opportunity, opposite Sandown Pier.

The buyer is Sandown Town Council (STC).

The approved proposal from a council report is for the site’s freehold to be transferred to STC for a ‘nominal £1’, subject to ‘due diligence’ and conditions ensuring continued provision of public toilets or their ‘suitable replacement’.

County Hall said the Pier Street site has long been identified as a key regeneration opportunity but investors have faced ‘ongoing delivery challenges’ in recent years due to the cost of potential public realm improvements and the requirement to maintain public toilets.

Claire Shand, director of corporate services at the Isle of Wight Council, said: “Sandown Town Council has expressed a keen interest in taking on the site to reopen the facilities in the short-term and to bring forward a longer term locally led regeneration scheme.

“The recommendation is that the transfer to the town council is considered to be the most practical way to secure progress, maintain essential public toilets and reduce ongoing costs to the council and any associated risks with an empty building.”

Cllr Julie Jones-Evans, of the Island First Network, said she was ‘really pleased’ the report had come forwards and that County Hall can work positively with STC which she labelled a ‘respectable public body’.

“There will be maybe some eyebrows raised regarding the pound,” she said. “We have to completely differentiate this site with other sites in the past.”

“Winter Gardens, Ryde Town Hall – obviously people will be very concerned about that situation occurring.

“But we are working with another public body. They have developed public conveniences – really good ones – in the area previously.

Cllr Jones-Evans added that STC know what people want from the area.

Claire Critchison, from the Green Party, said there were ‘plenty’ of ‘good examples’ of parish and town councils managing toilet facilities.

Reform UK chair of the PFR committee, David Llewellyn, said in a press release today: “This locally led approach empowers the local community to take ownership of a key seafront asset and shape its future in line with local priorities.

“The transfer represents a positive and pragmatic step forward for the site, and we are confident that STC will create new opportunities for community-driven regeneration.”