Helston is to once again have three sets of public toilets in the very near future.

The existing disabled toilet at the currently closed Trengrouse Way facilities are to be refitted to become a unisex toilet serving that end of the town.

The news will no doubt come as a relief to visitors and residents of the town who have been caught short by the closure, which was forced by funding cuts.

Although the toilets behind the Guildhall and at the bottom of Coinagehall Street have remained in use, people have apparently been using the wall outside the Trengrouse Way building on which to relieve themselves.

Helston Town Council’s policy, finance and resources committee has agreed to pay for the maintenance of the toilet and the opening and shutting each night out of its “devolution of assets and services” budget, with Cornwall Council covering the cost of turning the disabled toilet into a unisex facility.

At the same time, members agreed the opening time of all three sets of toilets in the town will be extended to 6pm between April 1 and September 30, from the existing 5pm.

There will also be exceptions, such as on May 1, Flora Day, harvest fair carnival and the Christmas lights switch on, when the facilities will remain open even later.

Town councillor Gillian Geer told the committee about an electronic system that would allow the council to set the time for when the toilet doors would automatically lock.

She acknowledged that the locks were quite expensive, but believed that the amount saved by not paying a company to close them would cover the cost quite quickly.

A firm would still need to be paid to open the facilities each day.

Mr Radford-Gaby said the suggestion sounded “eminently sensible” to look into. For the remainder of the building, the town council is to pay to turn the cubicles into extra storage space for itself. This will largely involve removing the partitions and toilets.

Mr Radford-Gaby said he would also like to look into removing the “wing” walls that currently exist, to make the whole area more “transparent.”