IT will soon be 10 years since the public toilets in Straiton, South Ayrshire were threatened with closure and the bulldozer (“Public toilet closures mark us out as being uncivilised”, Margaret Taylor, the Herald, January 8 & “A very public inconvenience: crisis for council-

run toilets”, The Herald, January

3).

We moved in and bought the toilets for the princely sum of £1, helping to form what has become Straiton Village Cooperative Ltd.

We now own the shop and the house next door, as well as the public toilets, largely thanks to

grant funding and public contributions.

We have refurbished the toilet block, installing 24-hour lighting, hot water, and automatic hand driers.

We employ an attendant to care for the facilities.

Straiton lives up to the moniker of being rambler territory, as on local signposts.

We could not make this claim without a comfort stop.

We have even been recognised in a foreign-printed tourist guide as a place to visit and, of course, the village shop prospers as well.

So, the message is clear. If you live in a village, threatened with the closure of its public toilets, approach your local authority, but do it now.

Bruce Henderson,

32 Dalmellington Road,

Straiton,

South Ayrshire.