PUBLIC toilets in East Lothian are set to lose permanent staffing and face reduced opening hours in a bid to cut costs by £126,000.

Staff covering the county’s public loos have been told that attendants based permanently at facilities will be axed and an extended team of mobile toilet attendants introduced to cover them.

But employees currently working in the mobile teams, which travel around public toilets, say they have also had their hours cut from 40 hours a week at peak season to just 26 hours all-year round.

And they have criticised the council for plans to employ more staff on fewer hours rather than maintain full-time contracts for staff already in place.

One staff member hit by the changes said: “The ironic thing is they are proposing taking on another six new mobile attendants at 26 hours a week each while cutting the hours of existing loyal staff.

“Surviving off 26 hours a week when you have bills to pay is not feasible.”

A council spokesperson said: “There are proposals to have our public toilets maintained by an expanded team of mobile attendants to maintain the high standard of service enjoyed by local residents and visitors alike.”

It is understand that there are currently six permanent attendants across the county who will lose their roles under the proposals.

One of those who could be affected was praised in a recent Courier when reader Morna Mulgray voiced disbelief in a letter that the attendant at North Berwick could be axed after 22 years of “heroic efforts”.

Morna said: “Thanks to Albert’s efforts the North Berwick toilets have become an attraction to tourists and residents alike.

“Any mess is quickly tidied up, not left for hours until the next mobile cleaning.

“The proposal to make on-site toilet attendants redundant has been made by a committee ignorant of the fact that crowds of visitors flock to North Berwick and the consequent numbers wanting to use the toilets.”

In a report to the council’s management team, the service manager for the facilities proposed that while all toilets would remain open, they expand the mobile team, scrap split shifts, remove attended toilet attendants and consider reducing the opening hours of all facilities.

Councillor Stuart Currie, SNP Group leader, voiced concern that the next stage would be introducing charges to use the public loos.

He said: “Public toilets in East Lothian are something that we used to win awards for but my fear is that what will come next is charging, followed by a real concern by many that they will be closed.

"It is astonishing that Labour councillors believe that changing staff contracts and even the potential of zero hours contracts is the right way to go.

"I hope they will now stop and bring the proposals to the full council for discussion rather than yet again put them through during the council recess.”

He urged that the proposals were put before a meeting of East Lothian Council.

Councillor Norman Hampshire, cabinet spokesman for environment, said the move to mobile attendant teams was being considered as the council looked to make savings but permanent attendants would be offered the chance to move onto the teams or take another role within the council.

And he hit back at criticism over the move.

Mr Hampshire said: "We have many public toilet facilities all over the county and are looking at trying the mobile teams to see if that is the best solution.

"It is easy for opponents to criticise but we need to hear alternative ideas from them.

" We are trying to protect as many public services as we can but the money we have available is simply not enough, and it is only going to be cut more in the future."

In 2002 East Lothian Council became only the second local authority to be awarded the British Loo of the Year title as facilities in Tranent, Haddington, Musselburgh and North Berwick outshone the rest of the UK.

In a report to the House of Commons by the British Toilet Association in 2008 which argued for the protection of public toilets, it was stated East Lothian had provided the best portfolio of public toilets throughout Britain for nearly 20 years.