A CONCERNED councillor is calling on district council bosses to overturn controversial plans to lease out a closed toilet block in Holland-on-Sea.

St Bartholomew’s councillor Colin Winfield previously said he was left “alarmed” by proposals for a dance studio to lease the redundant Ipswich Road toilet block from Tendring Council, if it gets funding for an extension.

Residents have claimed the toilet block in Ipswich Road had been a magnet for drug taking and antisocial behaviour in the past.

But residents have now volunteered to run the toilet block themselves.

Council officers have already moved ahead with work to submit outline plans for a plot of land at Colchester Road.

The plans will be submitted in order to “make the land more attractive to potential purchasers and maximise the council’s income from any sale”.

But Mr Winfield said: “We have got residents volunteering to adopt the toilet block, to keep it clean and maintain it.

“It was a target for antisocial behaviour, but now a task force has cleared the land around the toilets so it is not hidden away and people cannot lurk around.

“That site is too dangerous for a dance hall. The car park is always full, so there is nowhere for children to be dropped off.

“We already have three dance halls in Holland and don’t believe this would be sustainable and we would end up with an empty building.”

Mr Winfield also wants the Ipswich Road car park next to the toilets to be made bigger in a bid to stop Tesco Express shoppers from parking on the main road.

“It is dangerous around there - it is a tragedy waiting to happen,” he said.

“I have already heard of three or four people being knocked down there.”

The Ipswich Road toilets had been shut following vandalism, but were finally axed earlier this year as part of council plans to save £60,000 a year by closing ten public toilets across the district.