Axed Auchterarder toilets to become banking hub despite community bid to block it

Auchterarder’s mothballed public toilets will be converted into the town’s new banking hub.

Councillors approved a change of use application from Cash Access UK this week.

Auchterarder Community Council was among the objectors to the proposal.

Its spokeswoman Heather Edment addressed the committee on Wednesday.

She said Auchterarder locals wanted a banking hub – but not at the expense of their public toilets.

And she made a plea to retain the block in the hope a new operator could be identified.

“Should a change of use be granted, and all the internal fixtures and fittings removed… this would render the viability of any future community-led or charity-funded public toilets both uneconomical and improbable,” she said.

The planning committee was split 50-50 on the move, but the plan went through on the casting vote of the convener.

Banking hub plan follows loss of toilets and all Auchterarder bank branches

The toilet block, in the Crown Wynd car park, was declared surplus to requirements by Perth and Kinross Council in March 2023.

And council planners had recommended approval of the change of use application.

They said two other properties on Auchterarder High Street were considered as potential locations for a banking hub.

But neither layout was considered suitable.

Cash Access UK opened the new Auchterarder banking hub in a temporary base at the Aytoun Hall at the end of November.

The town’s last high street bank branch closed in 2020.

Two Auchterarder premises – the Niblik pub and Cafe Kisa – are signed up to the Perth and Kinross “comfort scheme”.

This allows non-customers to use their toilets.