Plans to revamp Halstead’s last remaining public toilets have been put on hold.

Halstead Town Council has deferred a decision on whether to go ahead with improvements to the facilities in Kings Road until next month.

Concerns over how much the refurbishment may cost mean quotes for the work will be sought before the project is given the green light.

Speaking during a meeting on Monday, mayor Andrew Munday insisted though the town council was keen to refurbish the facilities, it was impossible to provide guarantees without a better understanding of costs.

The council’s long-term budget plan means that £10,000 will be available by 2021.

However, there are fears the refurbishment could cost considerably more.

Mr Munday said: “Nobody is saying we aren’t going to do this, but we can’t decide to do the work without knowing costs.

“If the quote comes out to be £50,000 then we clearly don’t have the budget to do it. It’s not that we don’t want to do it.

“The only thing we can do is find out what these costs are and then we can determine what we can do and whether we have to budget for it in future financial years.”

Though it was accepted a better understanding of costs was needed, doubts were raised about whether the town council was sending out the right message by deferring the decision.

Councillor Gary Warren said: “We still need to commit to maintaining these facilities for the town.

“We are always getting rid of things for this town so we need to be convincing in our determination to repair and restore these toilets. They look disgusting and are disgusting.”

Councillors also called for the layout of the loos to be altered, with the need to provide greater baby changing facilities and the introduction of separate male and female toilets key issues.

The toilets were last refurbished 17 years ago at the cost of £68,000.