RESIDENTS in Hatherleigh will be asked to pay a small amount extra on their council tax next year, to keep the town's public toilets open.

The decision to make the increase — expected to be £1 extra per household — was made after a letter was received from West Devon Borough Council asking the town council to make additional contributions to the costs of cleaning and maintaining the toilets.

For the past three years the town council has kept its precept — the amount it receives from council tax — unchanged.

Town councillor Gary Bush said: 'We felt it was important to keep our toilets open, and as we already pay some towards the cleaning costs we decided that we would have to add the amount to the precept.

'We had already decided that we would keep the precept the same for the fourth year running, but the borough council's letter came in later and we unfortunately had to amend our plans.'

The borough council recently wrote to all town and parish councils asking for an additional 30% towards the running costs of public toilet facilities.