Stockholm built modern public toilets for 46 million kronor. Now most of them will be replaced – despite functioning.
Of Stockholm's total 95 public toilets, contracts for 81 will expire next year – and therefore they will be removed. This reports Mitti.
66 of the toilets are owned by the advertising company JC Decaux, which in 2014 entered into an agreement with the City of Stockholm. JC Decaux gained ownership of the toilets in exchange for 350 advertising spaces in Stockholm. After a burst budget, the price for the deal landed at 46 million.
Now the decision is that the base plates of the toilets must be demolished at a cost of 20 million kronor. This is because the agreement cannot be extended and the toilets cannot be bought out. Instead, the toilets will be removed from Stockholm. Traffic Commissioner Lars Strömgren (Green Party) blames the problem on the Alliance Government from ten years ago.
In hindsight, it is obvious that a different arrangement would have been better, says Strömgren to Mitti.
Now a decision has been made to build new toilets, where the city takes on the economic risk but also receives revenue from advertising. More toilets will also cost to use.
Opposition Commissioner Dennis Wedin (The Moderate Party) instead blames the current red-green government for wasting expensive taxpayers' money on removing modern toilets. He believes that Stockholm may be without such toilets for several years.
After much effort, functioning toilets will disappear. We will get fewer, worse, and more expensive toilets, says Dennis Wedin (M) to Mitti.
Corrected: In an earlier version of the text, there was an incorrect statement about what would happen to the toilets.
