Philip Allott is a businessman and politician who attended King James's School in Knaresborough and still lives in the town. He was leader of the Conservatives on Harrogate Borough Council, is a former Mayor of Knaresborough, and also served as the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire.

Plans by North Yorkshire Council to charge for using public toilets in Knaresborough have received a mixed response from the town, with some residents asking why they need to pay to pee, whilst others, especially businesses, are wanting to see better visitor facilities.

Of the 90-plus public toilets that North Yorkshire Council is responsible for, only 21 sites are classed as excellent, whilst 22 have been deemed "poor" or "unacceptable", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Currently, 63 public toilets are free to use. Entry fees to other toilets, which range from 20p to 40p, bring in £213,000 a year to North Yorkshire Council. In some cases, charging has enabled places such as Scarborough to have electronic doors, although be warned: don’t sit around too long, as the door may automatically open!

It is fair to say that toilets in Knaresborough have long been a contentious issue, because of a lack of investment and the diminishing number of public facilities – toilets at Bond End, Abbey Road and the railway station have all been removed.

But will charging for usage see an improvement in their condition? Well, not necessarily if the 50p charge to use the tatty North Terrace toilets in Whitby is anything to go by.

Currently, there are five lots of toilets in Knaresborough, located at York Place carpark, Fisher Street carpark, Conyngham Hall carpark, Waterside and on the edge of the Castle Yard.

All of these locations have high footfall from passing residents and visitors, so they do need to be fit for purpose. The question is: are they? And if you had to pay (unless it was an emergency) would you use them?

Therefore, in the interests of public research and with the assistance of my eldest grandson, we visited each of them armed with nothing more than a notebook on the morning of the May Day bank holiday, to view their condition.

We found all of the toilets had been washed earlier in the morning, so were clean at that point and each had adequate toilet paper, water for washing and a working dryer, although the condition of the porcelain in all of them was stained from water flushing and some soap dispensers were empty. Three of the toilets also had baby-changing stations in the gentlemen’s, which we thought was positive.

The biggest disappointment was not the cleanliness of the toilets but the fabric internally and externally of many of the buildings. The Castle Yard toilets, for example, have a badly leaking gutter, which has left stains between the disabled toilet and ladies'. Inside, one of the toilet-roll dispensers has been ripped out and all the doors and the ceiling need a new coat of paint.

The toilets at Fisher Street (behind the bus station) have a serious venting issue and require as a minimum a built-in air freshener like the one at the York Place carpark. The York Place toilet had no hot water and the cold tap was rusty. All of the toilets visited had either rusty washing facilities or something else that need replacing.

The Conyngham Hall carpark toilets are in urgent need of a complete repaint and the toilets on Waterside, whilst at best adequate, are a public health risk because the manhole cover at the doorway of the Gents has got remnants of toilet paper from when there was a heavy rain, which you are obliged to walk over. This has been reported to Yorkshire Water.

Councillor Richard Foster, North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for managing the environment, has said that there are plans to ensure that all toilets are “modern, reliable and cost-effective”. However, the timeframe is by 2030, which for Knaresborough is far too long!

I shared my research with Cllr Foster and asked him to expedite his plans for Knaresborough, but do feel free to also politely email him – his public email address is cllr.richard.foster@northyorks.gov.uk.

On receipt of my research, Cllr Foster promptly responded to say that the council won't charge until the toilets have been improved and the town council has been consulted.

But he'd better be as good as his word, because the toilets in Knaresborough need urgent investment and one of them is a public health risk. So come on Cllr Foster, start that modernisation programme in Knaresborough – not Northallerton – because we can’t wait to pee until 2030!