VILLAGERS came together to celebrate after successfully campaigning for a public toilet to open.

Action for Pangbourne Toilets Community Trust (APTCT) campaigners gathered on Saturday, April 30, to see parish councillor Brenda Kerr-Muir cut the ribbon to the newly modernised ladies toilet in Pangbourne.

On Saturday April 30th supporters of local charity, APTCT, gathered in the Station Road car park, Pangbourne, to see parish councillor Brenda Kerr-Muir cut the ribbon to the newly modernised ‘Ladies’.

Residents and walkers will now be able to use the public loo after the facility closed due to lack of central government funding.

The APTCT campaign group formed in 2017 after West Berkshire Council closed the facility. The block had been in situ since the 1970’s serving the villagers, visitors and the local area alike.

Such was the outcry that many villagers took it upon themselves to save the toilets.

Raising funds to clean and maintain the toilets was the first task facing the trustees, and in September 2017 enough money was raised by supporters to pay the costs for 12 months and the block was reopened by DJ Bill Buckley from BBC Radio Berkshire.

A spokesman from APTCT said: "The need for this facility is considerable for the health and well being of local people as well as those driving through the village towards Oxford, Reading or the M4.

"Throughout lockdown the toilets remained open, and proved essential for key workers when so many businesses were closed. In order to find out how much usage the facility has, the APTCT maintenance trustee fixed counters on the doors and now we know that around 20,000 use the facility every year, evidence indeed of how much they are an essential utility in our community.Since that date fundraising has been ongoing and the trustees decided to take on a modernisation programme as the toilets were in need of updating."

The disabled unit was deemed the most important to the campaign group to help those most vulnerable.

The unit was brought up to 21st Century standards and reopened in December 2020.

Phase 2 was updating The Ladies, and the final phase will be to modernise The Gent’s. All this has only been possible by the generosity of APTCT supporters and local charities including The Greenham Trust on the Good Exchange platform, Local Parish Councils, Pangbourne Rotary and Cardy Beaver properties.