Charges are to be considered for all of Weymouth’s public toilets – although the exercise might, at best, only just break even.

Town councillors will debate charging from Easter 2020 as a way of meeting the annual £395,000 bill to run and maintain its loos.

But the cost of installing coin-operated machinery in the new Beach Office loo complex alone could mean that, at best, the pay back period for charging 20p could be more than six years.

At the moment the council only charges at one public toilet – at the Swannery, which has a 20p charge and generates around £6,500 a year in income.

The item is likely to provoke the most discussion at the Wednesday 24 meeting of the finance and governance committee, which will be open to the public at 7pm in the Commercial Road council building.

A survey of more than 800 people carried out in Weymouth in April last year showed that 63 per cent would be prepared to pay up to 20p to use a toilet is they were clean and well-maintained; nine per cent said they would pay between 20p and 50p and 21per cent 50p or more. Others who were prepared to pay chose differing amounts in the survey.

Town councillors will be told that the main concerns of local people and visitors alike is cleanliness, the condition and general appearance of the toilets.

The report to the committee notes: “we have been working with Dorset Council and local contractors to make a positive difference but overall there is significant work for the town council to do over the next few years to bring the toilets up to a good quality and condition that we need to offer and maintain.”

Looking only at the new beach office toilets, together with its underground loos, the cost of installing coin machines could amount to £149,000 – which, if 20p were charged, would give an income of between £16,250 and £19,500 a year. The council report says this amounts to a return on investment of between 6.3 and 7.3 years, depending on which option is selected. The calculation fails to account for the cost of staff time for cash handling, accounting and banking.

“Optimistically, the life expectancy of the equipment would be estimated at 10 –14 years. Based on this assumption, the balance of the years following the return from the investment would only cover the cost of the future replacement equipment. It would be unlikely to generate additional income that could be applied to priority projects and areas of work,” concludes the report.

The council may also look at selling advertising within its public toilets to generate more income.

Councillors are warned that moving to charging in all loos could result in “a negative public reputational image of the council” especially when national organisations are moving away from charging and at a time when a soon to be launched Community Toilet scheme is based on a free to use model.