Market Place toilets a "disgrace"

I have, until recently, run a business on the square and am still running a regular stall on the market.

Unfortunately this has been a problem since the inception of the Unitary Authority in 2009.

In the days of SDC there used to be a Sunday collection.

The worst bins are those managed by Wiltshire Council.

They always seem to be looking for someone to blame for the rubbish rather than dealing with the problem.

Part of the problem is that WC now charge businesses three times more for collecting rubbish than SDC did and about twice as much as private contractors.

Also, when they re-designed the square two years ago, when considering the bin store, the architects employed by the council clearly didn't know how tall a standard 1,100 litre bin is, as the bins sit proud of the top of the store.

The management of this is very poor and just another prime illustration that you cannot run a city by sitting behind a desk 35 miles away in Trowbridge.

Also it clearly doesn't help the councillor with portfolio for managing the square lives 52 miles from it.

With regard to the toilets - yes they are a disgrace and another example of being managed by this distant faceless authority.

We could learn a lesson from some of our European neighbours. In many places throughout Spain and Italy, toilet attendants are unpaid volunteers relying on good tips. In most of these types of facilities you get service with a smile, a hello a goodbye and a guarantee that regardless of the age or constructive state of the toilets, you will find them spotless and smelling clean leaving users in most cases wanting to tip in the plate next to the fresh flowers, based on experience.

Come on Wiltshire Council, get out from behind those desks and come down to Salisbury and see what you are (or in many cases are not) doing here - alternatively throw in the towels (hopefully clean) and let local councillors and officials run our city.

Steve Dauwalder

Salisbury