PUBLIC toilets have generated at least £10,000 for Argyll and Bute Council in less than three months, a report has revealed - even though the 'pay on entry' equipment had to be switched off for several weeks.

Work began to install door entry mechanisms at nine public conveniences, across all four administrative areas, in September 2023, with operation due to begin early in 2024.

But following technical issues, the systems were deactivated in mid-Februrary – and reactivation didn’t begin until the end of March.

It is now reported that more than £3,000 in cash, and over £7,000 in contactless payments, has been generated.

Seven other sites are now set for installation of entry systems, with the council eyeing a further two.

However, councillors are recommended to hold off installation until after the current tourist season.

The details are given in a report for the meeting of the council’s environment, development and infrastructure committee on Thursday, June 20.

Executive director Kirsty Flanagan said: “The contractor mobilised to site at the end of September 2023. There were a number of issues with the delivery of the infrastructure works which prevented the activation of the installed systems before Christmas and delayed the roll-out of the full programme.

“The issues included the contractor initially delivering the wrong doors and subsequently there were issues with the supporting software.

“Defects and snagging issues were worked through in January 2024 and the phase one sites were activated on a rolling basis at the end of January and beginning of February.

“Over the weekend of February 17, customers were paying but were unable to access the facilities.

“Council staff on site and staff in the project team came in over that weekend to set the systems to free and open each site up to ensure customers could gain access.

“Due to the significance of the issues the system was completely deactivated at all sites to eliminate any further inconvenience to the public.

“Following these issues we urgently engaged with the contractor and asked them to investigate the issues and provide a reactivation plan.

“The contractor advised that the overarching issues were as a result of an unintended software update to the cellular modems which control the doors on each site.”

Ms Flanagan added: “Given the scale of the issues, we reactivated the systems on a phased approach, site by site initially, and closely monitored their operation to ensure that we were confident that the system was reliable.

“At the time of writing this report (June 12), since reactivation the systems are operating as expected 92.5 per cent of the time.

“Eight of the nine sites are operating and the one site which is not is being attended to by the contractor. The contractor has been responsive to any issues which have arisen since reactivation.

“We do not yet have figures for cash collected across all sites as at the time of writing this report it has not all been banked/processed. Across the sites (four) that the cash has been banked, the council has taken in £3,398.

“The contactless payments have generated £7,135 as at May 30. Once the system has operated reliably for a season across all sites, we will be able to show income per site and model possible future income.

“The Oban North Pier site has an existing cash charging system which generated £10,418 last year.

"In addition we have honesty boxes at a number of other sites, which raised £1,486 in the same period.”

The North Pier site is one of seven listed to be identified for installations. The others are at Ganavan, Bowmore, Port Ellen, Bridgend, Fionnphort, and Chapel Hill on Bute.

Two more facilities, at Moir Street in Dunoon and the Rothesay Victoriana, have been returned to the council from third parties, and quotes are being sought for systems to be installed there too.