RESIDENTS could face seeing their public loos closed for the winter in a major cost-cutting exercise aimed at saving South Hams Council more than £80,000 a year.

The toilets at Dartmouth Castle have already been earmarked for the four-month winter closure.

And village loos at Dittisham, Kingswear, Stoke Fleming and Stoke Gabriel are also on the hit list.

Local councillors have been asked to identify any of the town centre toilets in Dartmouth itself which could also be locked up for the winter.

The district council has said it was prepared to keep the loos open all year around if the parishes or towns were prepared to pay the running costs to keep them open during the four-month winter period.

Dartmouth town councillors plan to discuss the loo closure issue later this month.

Meanwhile, the district council has spelled out just exactly how much the town's public loos are costing taxpayers.

Most expensive are the Royal Avenue Gardens toilets, which cost a whopping £52,000 a year to keep open.

The cheapest are the Manor Garden loos which cost £6,700 a year.

The toilets at Dartmouth Castle cost £14,000 a year which is more expensive that the park-and-ride toilets, at £13,000 and the Coronation Park loos at £8,800.

The district council aims to save £80,000 on the 48 public toilets it owns across the district – which is the equivalent of 1.5 per cent of the average council tax bill.

South Hams Council has claimed that the district currently provides more public loos per head of population than any other council in the country and keeps more of them open all year around than anywhere else in Devon.

The latest proposals would mean closing 31 of the toilets outside the main urban areas for the winter months.

If the parishes or towns don't want to see any closures, the council's head of environment services Helen Dobby is asking them to consider footing the bill themselves.

That could mean bumping up their own local precepts to find the cash to keep the loos open all year round or raising the money by charging people to use them.

There are also suggestions that they could find a 'third party' to pick up the tab for the running of the loos.

Ms Dobby said the council has already approached such 'third parties' where there is already an interest but so far not a single deal has been hammered out.

And she also told local councillors: 'It is important to remind parish and town councils that the decision to save £80,000 from this service has already been taken.

'This consultation is designed to deliver the saving in the most appropriate way by area.

'You are in the best places to work with the district council.

'The district council may then be in a position to enable local solutions which are workable in delivering the overall saving.'