Faced with the closure of the Toilets on 31 December, a group of residents have volunteered to form a Community Group, GNAT: Gargrave Needs A Toilet.
It costs roughly £12,000 a year to keep the Cargrave toilets open with a large proportion of these costs have been wages for someone to open and close and clean the toilets.
Volunteers have undertaken to do this until other funding sources can be found. In the meantime money needs to be found to pay the other expenses, such as water rates, consumables and some replacement facilities which are urgently required.
Gargrave Parish Council which has funded these Public Toilets for 10 years can no longer afford to fund them because of serious and urgent demands upon their funds.
The group have set up a Go Fund Me page and have already received significant help. As a group, they have taken over the running of the toilets with an 18 person strong volunteer cleaning team.
Freya Jackson, co-founder of the group GNAT, said:
The facilities are vital to motorists, bus passengers, cyclists on the many routes which pass through the village, walkers on the Pennine Way and the Leeds Liverpool Canal and of course residents and visitors to this lovely village and its greens.
The group is determined to keep these facilities open, and since the foundation of a Go Fund Me page they have received significant help so far.
In conclusion, GNAT: Gargrave Needs A Toilet, as a group, have taken over the running of the toilets since 1st January 2020, with an 18 person strong volunteer cleaning team.
Donations to help can be made via https://www.gofundme.com/f/gnat-gargrave-needs-a-toilet or a Bank Transfer to GNAT (Account number: 53123018 Sort code: 01-07-93)
Typo in the title Tim!