A council in Powys is encouraging residents to make their voices heard over the future of the town’s public toilets.

Machynlleth’s public toilets have been closed since January 2023, but the town council has now shared a survey designed to help with funding their return.

The survey, organised by the council’s Machynlleth Public Toilets Working Group, has been set up to gage how many people frequently use the facilities.

It asks applicants how frequently they use Machynlleth’s toilets, whether their closure has impacted them and if they would welcome the transfer of ownership and management of the public toilet block to a local organisation.

Sharing the survey via social media, Machynlleth Town Council said: “Machynlleth, we need your input.

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“We are delighted to say that the Machynlleth Town Public Toilets Working Group is making great advances in moving forward. But we need to know, for funding purposes how much we really need them.”

As the increasing cost of repairs, upkeep and maintenance added up, the keys were handed back to Powys Council by Machynlleth which was facing bills of £25,000 for their upkeep.

The £25,000 costs of maintaining the facilities do not include the potential cost of repairs in the event of vandalism, though Machynlleth Town Council’s proposal to re-open the toilets did include measures such as new metal doors to protect the building from damage.

While the toilets are owned by Powys County Council, for the past few years the running and maintenance of the facilities has been handled by Machynlleth Town Council, who closed the facilities in 2023 in an effort to lower the council tax.

In the months since, the council has been pushing ideas to re-open the facilities.

At the time, former town clerk Dewi Jones said: “We are very aware of what a blow this is to the town and the need for there to be clean and accessible public toilets, particularly to attract tourists and to provide a much needed facility during market day.

“We would like to invite the ideas and suggestions of the community to explore ways that we can try and keep the toilets open.”

The survey can be found here.