Friday January 30th 2026
Stow Town Hall
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Paul Kelly
Relief is at hand for villagers in a Borders village who have been waiting five years to spend a penny at public toilets.
The former toilet block in Stow was decommissioned in 2020 due to its condition and prohibitive repair costs.
A number of public toilets in the Borders were permanently closed after the Covid lockdown, some of which were sold off, with others transferred to the ownership of community groups.
In March 2023, Scottish Borders Council agreed that people living in Stow should be one of 27 communities region-wide to be given access to a public toilet.
But since that pledge was given the community has been waiting for an update on where a public loo would be sited.
Now it has emerged that plans are afoot to provide such a service within the village’s town hall.
In response to an open question posed at a meeting of Scottish Borders Council this week, Councillor Simon Mountford, the council’s executive member for Planning and Community Assets, said: “Officers have recently identified a potential solution which would restore provision of access to public toilet facilities in Stow.
“The preferred option is to create a public accessible toilet facility within the existing provision contained within the town hall.
“This would require relatively minor reconfiguration to the internal door and the installation of a timed-lock to the external door to make a secure unit that could be available for public use during set hours.
“This unit can be accessed directly via ramp access to the side of the building, providing safe, inclusive toilet provision that does not impact the hall users.”
In response, Galashiels SNP councillor Fay Sinclair, welcomed the move as an “interim measure”.
She added: “The ultimate ambition of the community would be to see some sort of provision in the park, but the town hall solution certainly does have significant support.”
When asked for a timeline on the development, Councillor Mountford said: “I can’t give a precise timeline but I can be fairly confident it won’t be five years.”
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