TEMPORARY public loos may have to remain on the Den at Teignmouth for another year as plans for new permanent replacements have been delayed.

Delays to the construction programme of the permanent toilets planned by Teignmouth Town Council are behind the need for extra time.

So a bid to extend planning permission for the temporary structure has been submitted to Teignbridge Council to allow them to stay until March 2025.

The application for the extension says if the two temporary toilet blocks are removed before the construction of the new ones, the only facility on the Den would be an accessible toilet which is operated with a RADAR key. It says: ‘Teignmouth has been awarded a blue flag this year and The Den is an extremely busy area all year round, particularly in the summer months.

‘Without these facilities, Teignbridge Council might receive complaints from both the public and visitors to the resort, which may be detrimental to the blue flag award.’

The hold-up follows the town council’s bid to provide new toilets.

This came after a long-term lease of the former Beachcomber building and lower ground floor toilets, now the Captain’s Table restaurant.

The new lease for the premises would have left the resort with only a small block of toilets at the Point CP as well as toilets at Jubilee Shelter, near the Lido.

The proposal was to provide temporary toilets, to replace those lost, under the former beachcomber until Teignmouth Town Council had constructed new toilets facilities at the former Aquarium building nearby.

Temporary toilets have been hired from a local company for a period of 82 weeks starting in October 2022 to March 2024.

They were placed back-to-back on The Den opposite The Captains Table Restaurant, with construction of a permanent drainage connection into the public combined sewer.

They toilets are placed on concrete pads with a tarmac path allowing access to the doors. Services have taken from the existing accessible toilet to provide the temporary toilets with a power supply.

The existing accessible (disabled) toilet continues to remain open, sited underneath the Captain’s Table Restaurant, as there is no other accessible facility within the temporary blocks or the other town centre toilets.

Now Teignbridge Council needs permission to extend the hire period of the toilets until March 31 2025.

In the meantime, to mitigate the potential harm that the ‘utilitarian’ design of the temporary toilets might present, a planting scheme will be implemented to help soften the form and scale of the building, and provide a screening to help conceal the toilet blocks.

When the new toilets have been completed by Teignmouth Town Council, the temporary toilets will be removed by the hire company.

The planting scheme will be carefully removed and re-used in another location.