Despite being promised a “fully working, refurbished toilet block", Falmouth Town Council will have to spend more than a penny after being forced to pay £56,000 to replace a collapsing roof on toilets at Gyllyngvase beach.

The council discussed various options for the building, which it took over from Cornwall Council on the understanding that all necessary repairs had been carried out, including spending a further £47,000 to continue repairs which had already cost £7,000.

Ruth Thomas, the council's finance officer, said it had been discovered during repair work that roof beams inside a cantilever roof had rotted where they rested on an earlier flat roof, and that the problem had been compounded by an earlier repair where workmen had cut through a beam to install a stench pipe.

She said that council workers had tried to do only the work that was necessary but that every time they repaired on beam, by encasing it in concrete, another faulty one had been uncovered, and the ceiling was starting to bow.

Councillor Candy Atherton said when the toilets had been signed over from Cornwall Council, they struck a deal to provide “fully working, refurbished toilet blocks.”

Councillor Oliver Cramp said the council was in the same position as someone “who has been sold a car that doesn't go”, and that it needed to “take the issue back to the salesman.”

Mrs Thomas said that as well as the roof there was an ongoing issue with the drainage, which the town council was told had been resolved, but it wasn't.

She said they had wanted to carry out work on the drainage over the summer but she told them “do it after the oyster festival when the [tourist] season is out of the way.”

She added that now she has a greater working understanding of the problems with the toilets, she will be talking to the contractors and finding out what they will be doing.

The council decided to reroute £40,000 of funds which had been earmarked for work on the town council building when it took on the freehold, as well as other municipal building money, to pay for the new roof.

The work would also require the building to be shut, and Councillor Alan Jewell suggested that portaloos be provided in the interim.

Ruth said the new roof would also allow the ceiling in the toilets to be lowered, meaning it would meet the cubicle walls, which would address current concerns over privacy.

The council said it will be looking for some form of compensation from Cornwall Council, with Councillor Atherton suggesting that as it is dedicated to keeping the toilets open, it might be an opportunity to ask for the freehold for the site.

Councillor Atherton said: “As a council we are dedicated to keeping toilets open across the town.

“It's my position that we should look to do this through the winter and do it well.”

Councillor Rowenna Brock said: “I wonder if we would be better off speculating to accumulate. Do the job properly, do it once. Done.”