A PLANNING application submitted by Fenland District Council to refurbish public loos in Wisbech has fallen at the first hurdle after the paperwork was rejected as invalid by……Fenland District Council.

It was a case of one department not understanding what the other needed when the environmental health team decided public loos in Wisbech needed refurbishing.

However six days after the application was submitted, Nikki Carter, technical support officer in the planning department, wrote back to say that “unfortunately your application is currently invalid.”

She told her colleague that for the planning department to “validate your application” some errors needed to be corrected.

Ms Carter said of the application that

1: Not all parts had been filled in, as required by the council

2: People who owned land nearby had not been notified as the law required

3: Positioning of roof lights was missed out

4: Doors were shown in the wrong place on the floor plan

5: A scaled drawing for proposed bollards was missing

6: A proposed hipped roof was not correctly shown

7: No information was provided about protecting nearby trees during refurbishment work

Ms Carter invited her colleagues to contact her by phone or email but failing that she felt they could take a look at the planning and building section on a familiar website…..that belonging to Fenland Council.

When it finally gets sorted the council will, hopefully, gain consent to modernise the public conveniences in Church Terrace and convert them to unisex toilets.

The council says the new loos “will not unduly impact the Wisbech Conservation Area, or street scenes, but will seek to enhance the existing block of toilets in a sympathetic way”.

It is expected that patrons will be asked to pay 20p each time they use them.