At the Meopham Annual Parish Meeting on May 17th 2024, a Parish Poll was proposed and agreed, in accordance with the Local Government Act 1972, on this question:

Meopham Parish Council should reopen the public toilets on Pitfield Green?

An important parish asset closed without any public consultation!

The vote will be on June 20th 2024 from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at your usual polling station

Postal voting and proxy voting will not be permitted. Photo ID is not required.

There will be polling stations at: Meopham Village Hall, Chinnery Court, Meopham Scout Hall (at Judson's Recreation Ground), Harvel Village Hall and Culverstone Community Centre

If you are unsure which polling station to use phone Gravesham Borough Council on 01474-337253 for advice. NO POLLING CARDS WILL BE ISSUED.

Keeping the toilets open would cost about a penny a day for each household in the parish. The Parish Council has decided that your household's penny is better spent on adding to its 'Council Administration' budget, which went up by no less than £46,000 this year as part of a 31% increase in the Precept.

Vote YES on June 20th to ask the Parish Council to reconsider its priorities and REOPEN an important public facility

YES flyer PDF (front)    YES flyer PDF (back)
Official calling notice from Gravesham Borough Council

Facebook posting by ex-parish councillor James Ferrin on January 17th 2024
Shows 95% support in a Facebook poll by 425 voters for keeping the public toilets open. (They were closed on March 31st.)

Background information from Max Bramer, a local resident, the lead proposer for the poll
Posting on Facebook May 18th 2024
Posting on Facebook May 26th 2024
[Summary] The parish council shows no interest in engaging in discussion with or consulting its parishioners. A 95% vote to keep the toilets open in an online Facebook poll in December was ignored. They cost about 10K a year to run, which is about one penny a day for each household in the parish. That penny has been diverted to council admin, which has gone up by 46K this year. They are now considering selling or leasing the building for commercial use. Which do you think is the better use of a penny a day: a public facility or more admin?
Posting on Facebook June 9th 2024
[Summary] An important public facility which was open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., 364 days a year. Disabled facility was accessible 24/7 all year round to anyone with a RADAR key, including parents with babies or small children. Cost: about a penny a day for each household in the parish, now diverted to more spending on Council administration.
Posting on Facebook June 12th 2024
[Summary] Council usage and cost per visit figures seem plucked out of the air as well as irrelevant. Community Toilet Scheme not an adequate substitute.
Posting on Facebook June 16th 2024
[Summary] Claims about the cost of the Parish Poll seem to have been plucked out of the air. The council is circulating a leaflet that gives a ridiculously low six-month toilet usage figure based on a recording device that never worked, followed by a guess about annual usage and a statement about the progress of their partial replacement 'community' scheme that does not appear to be borne out in fact. The real cost of the toilets is about a penny a day for each household in the parish, now diverted to more spending on Council administration.
Posting on Facebook June 18th 2024
[Summary] The toilets could be modernised over a period of years without necessarily increasing the Precept at all.
Posting on Facebook June 18th 2024
[Summary] As an ex-parish councillor of 20 years standing I am disappointed to see unjustifiable numbers and questionable claims repeated over and over and some even posted on notices around the parish as facts. The parishioners of Meopham deserve better than this!

POSTING ON FACEBOOK MEOPHAM NEWS AND VIEWS - MAY 18TH 2024 Parish Poll on should Meopham Parish Council reopen the public toilets on Pitfield Green? At yesterday's Meopham Annual Parish Meeting there was some robust discussion about whether the public toilets should be reopened. There is clearly strong feeling about this in the parish. The Chairman even admitted that there was a split in the Council on the topic. When the parish council took over the public toilets from GBC in 2018 I was a member of the PC. Before we did so we conducted a survey that showed strong public support and we told the public that we were increasing the Precept by £10K a year to pay for them. The current Council has now closed the toilets without any consultation, but has certainly not reduced the Precept by £10K (in fact it has gone up by £46K this year). In December James Ferrin, another former parish councillor, set up an online poll on Facebook. 95% of the 433 responses were in favour of keeping the toilets open. But the council seems to regard that as too small a number to be worth considering. However, it shows no signs of doing any consultation of its own. There were numerous points in the meeting where the council could have offered to consult the public but they were not taken up. This is the situation envisaged by the legislation about a Parish Poll being called by parish electors during a parish meeting. It is like a referendum run by GBC in much the same way as an election (polling booths, poll clerks and an official count). The topic of the poll will be 'Meopham Parish Council should reopen the public toilets on Pitfield Green'. Yes, or no? The last Parish Poll in Meopham was about 10 years ago and concerned Judson's Pavilion. It gave a strong indication of public opinion and I hope that this poll will too. Polls are not binding on the PC but any council would be foolish to ignore a strong expression of public opinion. The cost of the poll 10 years ago was about £3,500. I hear that the parish council are now guessing £10K-30K for the latest poll but unless inflation has risen by somewhere between 300% to 900% in the last ten years, that looks like just a wild guess, possibly based on a large Town Council with a much bigger population. The cost would have been much less if the council had simply consulted the parishioners itself. Perhaps another time it will.