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A Kerry superloo is costing a town council €38,000 a year
- but only generates €650 in revenue.
It's one of a number of superloos around the country where
local authorities are flushing away thousands of euro every
year because they're bound by expensive contracts to public
toilet providers.
The town council in Listowel, Co Kerry, is locked into a
20-year contract for the superloo - which is costing the local
authority €38,000 per year. The deal is with JCDecaux
- a French company with an office in Dublin - and was signed
in 2001.
They will hand over €340,000 in the next nine years before
the contract runs out.
However, a report carried out by the town council in 2010
showed that breaking the contract would incur "substantial"
costs. Because Listowel is a 'heritage town', Kerry
County Council says it has to provide public toilet facilities
for visitors.
"If Listowel Town Council were to break the lease, it would
necessitate finding a location for a public toilet and there
would be difficulties in locating a suitable site," a spokesman
for Kerry County Council said.
"Additionally, there would be significant costs in constructing
a new toilet block, as well as the ongoing cost of maintenance.
The existing toilet is self-cleaning and there is no cleaning
or maintenance costs associated with it."
The most common type of superloo is the sanisette,
a self-cleaning unisex public toilet made by JCDecaux.
Source - The Irish Independent
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