A TOWN shopping centre owner says the continued closure of public toilets next to the mall is a turn off for visitors.

While other toilets in Abergavenny reopened on July 20, the ones on White Horse Lane at the back of the town’s Cibi Walk shopping centre remain shut.

And owner Bill Harkness says its discouraging shoppers from visiting at a time when their trade is desperately needed.

The four public loos are looked after by Abergavenny Town council, who took over the responsibility for running them at the start of 2018.

A council spokesperson said: “While we clean them they are owned by Monmouthshire County Council. My understanding is that they were vandalised and the pipework is broken, so we are waiting for MCC to repair them.”

The closed White Horse Lane facilities, close to the town’s Fairfield car park, mean that shoppers have to walk several hundred yards to the toilets at the back of the Market Hall, or even further to the bus station and Castle Street car parks.

Mr Harkness, who has run the shopping centre that houses the likes of Wilkinson and Iceland for 35 years, said: “I understand there may have been a problem in the past with the toilets, but you have got to have a loo in the centre of the shops.

“It’s a major issue for people that there is no loo without having to walk a distance from the high street, and that will discourage shoppers at a time when we desperately need them to visit our traders.

“The shops are open again and it’s essential for the town centre to have decent loos.

“The shops themselves can’t open their loos to people needing the toilet and it’s a local authority obligation to provide them.

“They closed the nearest loos at the start of lockdown, and although the shops are open again and we have lots of visitors in the middle of the holidays, the toilets are still shut.”

He said that when he refurbished a big complex in Southend, one of his priorities was to make sure it had “fantastic loos”, because “it’s a key part of any shopping experience, knowing there’s a decent toilet if you need it. It’s very important.”

Mr Harkness added: “I’ve owned Cibi Walk since 1985 and I feel very attached to Abergavenny and want to see its shops succeed. But now we’re open again, we’ve got to give shoppers the right experience.

“Our rivals in the bigger centres with big malls have loos, but we will lose out to them if we can’t provide basic facilities.

“We’re trying to create this cafe culture feel in Abergavenny and Monmouth, but it’s no good if people leave the cafe and later can’t find a loo. It puts people off coming here.

“We want to keep our town centres going in difficult times when they are competing with bigger centres with proper facilities.

“I know councils are short of money, but my manager has brought the matter up at the local business group meeting because it’s such a critical thing if we want to encourage shoppers to start coming into the town again to spend money.”