Farnham Town Council is pressing ahead with £900k plans for a toilet block on Gostrey Meadow despite a funding snub and petition launch.

The debate over plans to replace the current block with a “national class” amenity building rumbles on with the Liberal Democrats questioning the price of the build.

A petition calling on FTC to “think again” has been launched while the project wasn’t awarded Strategic CIL by Waverley Borough Council as the scheme “scored poorly on delivering growth and value for money”.

The town council has defended the project given the rising popularity of events on Gostrey Meadow and the building’s likely usage, with Cllr Graham White insisting the facility is “more than a toilet”.

“We need to take this forward and create a national class new amenity for Farnham,” said the councillor in reporting the four-figure popularity of events on the meadow.

“We have to produce facilities capable of dealing with these numbers and it’s completely right they would expect to have decent facilities.

“This isn’t just a toilet – it’s an amenity for all residents of Farnham.

“It’s future-proofed and will have good storage facilities for events as everything comes in from the depot at the moment.”

Cllr Kika Mirylees called the project “really essential” while Chris Jackman claimed the costs would only rise if the council dithered further.

He said: “We could argue all day about curved roofs and design but we’ll never get to a stage where we’re all happy with it – we need that facility to happen right now.”

Cllr White told the council at its March 19 meeting that a £900,000 cost was predicted two years with FTC remaining on budget despite inflation and rising costs over the period.

But Cllr Tony Fairclough said that FTC should question the “immense costs”, especially when WBC have questioned the scheme’s value for money and a “five star” £200k toilet block recently opened in Chichester.

He said: “Yes, there’s a need, as the old facilities aren’t accessible to all and the ones at the moment aren’t fit for purpose.

“And, yes, the residents of Farnham deserve reasonable toilet facilities, but I really don’t think we need them to be world class. We don’t need that and we’re in danger of causing a folly.

“A spend of over £1million or close to it? I’m sorry, I just don’t think that’s right in any environment right now.

“I’m very disappointed we didn’t get the strategic CIL and one of the criticisms was they didn’t think this project was value for money. But perhaps we should question that.

“If someone says it’s not value for money then shouldn’t we be listening to them?”

Councillors heard the town clerk submitted a Freedom of Information request from WBC seeking the detailed scoring and notes of the meeting where the Strategic CIL decision was made.

“The arguments seemed strange given the public demand for replacing the substandard toilets and the growth in attendances at events in Gostrey Meadow,” said FTC.