TAXPAYERS are footing the £10,000 bill for a firm to investigate whether a Scottish beauty spot should have a public toilet.
The existing toilets at Killin, Stirlingshire, are being shut by the local council in a bid to save £16,000 a year.
But national park bosses have stepped in with public money for a “feasibility study” to see if new loos should be constructed near the Falls of Dochart.
The £10,000 will be given to a private firm to work out if a cheaper toilets can be built that can still cope with around 50,000 users a year.
But a Spokesman for Taxpayers Scotland condemned the spending.
He said: “Spending this amount of money on a feasibility study tells taxpayers a lot about how the public sector simply does not value of our tax money.
“Five separate tax-funded organisations are in partnership talking about how to take a decision and then paying for someone to else to help make it.”
The spokesman said: “That’s outrageous, and the round figure of the grant tells us that the figure seems to have been plucked out of the air.
“Have these organisations not got anyone on their payroll who could do this work as part of their existing job role?”
Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park has given the cash to Killin and Ardeonaig Community Development Trust (KAT) who are in the process of hiring a toilet feasibility expert.
Stirling Council, Killin Community Council, and Environmental Action Killin are also involved in the project.
Gordon Watson, Director of Operations, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park said: “The National Park is supporting the local community to look at options for retaining, improving and operating public toilets that were previously operated by Stirling Council.”
But William Russell, Chair of KAT, admitted the feasibility study was costing so much nothing would be left to actually build any toilet.
He said: “We would have to look for grants to buy anything after the study as land will be too expensive and we wouldn’t have enough.”
