A job well done! Champagne toast as Helmsdale and District Development Trust celebrate opening of renovated village toilets
Members of a Sutherland community development group were celebrating this week as their long-running project to improve an important facility finally came to fruition.
Helmsdale and District Development Trust (HDDT) held a ceremony outside the village’s public toilet block in wet and windy weather on Monday to mark its reopening after a £217,000 upgrade.
Trust chairman Ruth Whittaker gave a short speech and development officer Mary Stewart, who was praised for her tenacity in overcoming various obstacles and challenges facing the project, cut a blue ribbon and declared the block open.
Those present were treated to champagne.
Mrs Whittaker said: “We are all volunteers, with only the best interests of our community at heart. Our objective in opening this newly modernised facility has been to contribute a practical asset which will improve the experience of both visitors to, and residents of, this community which we love and in which we take such pride.”
She added: “Regardless, however, of our best intentions and the vital generosity of our funders, this project would still exist only as a planning application, had it not been for the persistence and expertise of our local development officer, Mary Stewart.
“Mary has literally driven this forward, negotiating such often ludicrous procedural obstacles as would have crushed the will to live in a lesser being. Words are inadequate to thank her.”
The toilet block was previously owned and run by Highland Council but the trust took over and began the refurbishment [project after the authority closed the block in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was feared that the toilets would remain permanently closed.
There was an initial problem with the ownership of the land on which the block stood, but this was resolved.
Funding for the improvement works came from the Rural Tourism and Infrastructure Fund (£125,000); SSE Beatrice and various Gordonbush Wind Farm Funds; the Scottish Government’s Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) (for the solar panels) and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
The Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund is administered by VisitScotland and was set up to support projects in rural parts of the country that are under pressure from significant increases in visitor numbers.
Representatives of funders were present at Monday’s ceremony.
The toilets were stripped back to a bare shell with all internal walls and fixtures removed to create a better layout. Both the men’s and women’s side of the block now have disabled and adult changing facilities and coin-operated showers.
Parts of the roof have been replaced and solar panels installed.
Mrs Stewart said: “Not only is the facility something that Helmsdale can be proud of, but it will also bring people into the village, which will boost our local economy.
“I think we as a community have felt the negative impact since the council closed the toilets but now we can reverse that and bring people back.”
Helmsdale and District Development Trust is now looking forward to another celebration later this month as another major infrastructure project crosses the finishing line.
The official opening of the village’s new MUGA (Multi-Use Games Area) will take place on Friday, June 28, at 7pm.
