Weymouth Town Council has decided not to charge for the use of its public toilets, at least for now.

It comes as councillors will be asked to allocate even more money to Dorset Council to cover an overspend on the new superloos, which are being planned for the Esplanade.

The town council’s finance and governance committee was asked to consider charging for the use of its free public toilets from Easter 2020, as a way of meeting the annual £395,000 bill to run and maintain its loos.

Cllr Gill Taylor raised issues on the possible reputational damage to the town council if it were to charge for its public toilets.

She warned residents would not be happy about paying for something which was previously free, and that charging could disadvantage certain groups of people.

The cost of installing coin-operated machinery in the new superloos would mean that the pay-back period for charging 20p could be more than six years.

Cllr Peter Barrow and Cllr David Gray had doubts about the financial viability of the scheme.

Cllr Gray also suggested the coin-operated machinery would have to be able to accept contactless payments.

Cllr Richard Nickinson said: “If we are going to charge at all, it would have to be a minimum of 50p or we shouldn’t bother.”

Cllr Kate Wheller who was briefholder for toilets in the former Weymouth and Portland Borough Council said it was originally going to be only the superloo that charged the public for use.

Most councillors agreed that residents should be given the option to use alternative facilities for free.

Town clerk Jane Biscombe then told councillors that Dorset Council will be releasing papers today about a predicted overspend for the new superloos asking members to reallocate some of the town council’s existing budget to fund the overspend.

The overspend is anticipated to be in the region of £120,000.

The town clerk put the overspend down to some significant building costs, an increase in the price of oil and Brexit.

Cllr Richard Nickinson said: “I think bearing in mind the level of overspend, this whole discussion about whether we charge or not is irrelevant.

“I propose we postpone any decision on charging until we’ve made a decision on whether we are going to fund this, because if members are not happy with the design of this and the overspend, which does seem excessive, I propose we defer a decision until we decide if we want to fund this or send it back to Dorset Council for a rejig of the whole scheme.”

Chairman of the committee, Cllr David Harris, said: “We’ve got plans in front of us that we’re not very happy with, the price has gone up, there will be a paper next week to discuss that, but in the meantime, we’ve agreed that we’re not going to charge for any of the free public toilets,”