CORNWALL Council’s deputy leader has expressed disappointment at news on plans to exempt public toilets from business rates, saying this would create a ‘funding shortfall’ for the authority.

North Cornwall Conservative MP Scott Mann last week said formal proposals have now come forward in the Local Government Finance Bill that would give local authorities the power to waive business rates under their discretion on public toilets.

Many public toilets in the county have been taken on by town and parish councils.

However, Liberal Democrat Cornwall Councillor for Launceston North and North Petherwin Adam Paynter, who is also the local authority’s deputy leader, said: “We have previously lobbied Central Government over the unfair burden of charging business rates on public toilets. While we welcome the Government’s decision to give local councils the powers to award discretionary relief from April 2018 under the Local Government Finance Bill, we are disappointed that there is no mention of additional money for councils which take up these powers. Applying these powers to the public toilets that are the responsibility of town and parish councils in Cornwall would create a £156,000 funding shortfall for the council. If the powers were applied to all public toilets in Cornwall, the shortfall would increase to around £250,000. We have previously called on the Government to compensate local authorities for any such funding shortfall, as it has done previously with other business rate relief measures, but we have yet to receive any confirmation that this will happen.”

Cllr Paynter attended last week’s meeting of Launceston Town Council, where he said: “It’s not going to save council tax payers a penny.

“It would help town and parish councils and other businesses that are rateable but overall it’s not going to save the tax payer.

“It will be for the next council after May to look at discretionary rate relief policy.”

Launceston’s town clerk Christopher Drake told the Post the cost of the business rates on its three sets of public toilets it has previously taken on from Cornwall Council is £3,605.80.

He said: “We would welcome any rate relief on sites, but even if this is not forthcoming. I would hope that the council would aim to keep the toilets free to use and our budget for 2017-18 allows for their continued free use.”

Mr Mann, on welcoming the legislation, said: “It simply isn’t acceptable to have vital assets like public toilets being closed, and that’s why I wrote to David Cameron back in 2015 to request that business rates be waived, which currently see councils forking out thousands of pounds to pay for.

“This legislation will allow Cornwall Council to waive business rates on all public toilets, and I was delighted to see this legislation passed by MPs.”

The Local Government Finance Bill will now proceed to Committee Stage for line-by-line scrutiny before then returning to the floor of the House of Commons for Third Reading. Once passed, it will then proceed to the House of Lords for similar scrutiny.