During 2004 discussions took place with South Shropshire District Council, who were looking to make a significant investment to improve their Public Toilet provision. For an area of outstanding natural beauty and therefore a tremendous tourist attraction the decision to invest this money in improving public toilets only scraped through on a narrow margin. Once again it shows how difficult it is to get our Councils to commit investment to what is an essential service. 2004 was spent looking at the market suppliers, making site visits and after an extended period of consultation SSDC confirmed that an order would be placed with InterPublic for the refurbishment of five public toilets and the new build of one toilet in Cleobury Mortimor. This was a tremendous success to InterPublic, who would now have six new toilets on their own door step.

With the contract start date set late in 2004 for January 2005, InterPublic worked hard at the end of 2004 to get a Building Regulations application submitted and work started at Clun Bridge Car Park in February 2005. By early summer the toilet reopened as a three cubicle direct access toilet complete with InterPublic anti-vandal alarms system, background music and a rain water harvesting system.

The refurbishment saw the front elevation of the building removed and replaced in local stone, the high level windows to the gables and rear elevation removed and replaced in matching brickwork. The high standard of building works and hard landscaping carried out by local contractor JWF Bebb has seen this tired toilet turned into a first class toilet for the 21st century. Opened for the May bank holiday weekend for the celebrations of The Green Man Festival, the toilet performed faultlessly over the weekend, clocking up some 2000 recorded uses in the weekend. With a high water table and the river close by, the rain water tank was placed above ground and screened with a lap board fence. The rain water installation collects all the roof rainwater into a 12,000 litre storage tank. The toilet is then served with a pumped and pressurised service from the tank at 3.0 Bar. To provide this service InterPublic developed a control panel that is fully automatic. Using a three float system in the tank the system can automatically add mains water when rainwater is not available.

By March 2005 the Building Control submissions were in place for The Livestock Market toilet, Bishops Castle and Ludlow Castle Street Car Park. With a finish dates for both of the summer 2005 InterPublic ran both jobs together.

The Ludlow toilet was a major undertaking with the roof to be removed and a new pitched roof added, canopy formed, car parks office on site and new access areas. This terrible and dire looking building was transformed in 20 weeks by InterPublic's specialist builders, DHD Homes of Pontesbury, Shropshire into a showpiece toilet that has seen heavy usage of some 15,000 uses a month and serviced by a rainwater harvesting system.

As Ludlow was finished so Bishops Castle came towards completion. This very run down facility on The Livestock Market at Bishops Castle was remodeled removing the existing privacy screens. The hidden gutters behind wooden fascias were hiding other problems and the roof was to be removed to replace rotten rafter feet. Sixteen weeks later and another triumph of workmanship by local contractor JWF Bebb, this toilet was transformed. The front elevation had been removed and the man-made stone effect bricks cleaned and reused to provide a stunning effect. The roof repaired and new UPVC fascias fitted along with cast aluminium gutters. With the rainwater harvesting hidden away at this site underground, all that can be seen is the control cabinet to the side of the toilet. New external hard landscaping was added to separate the market traffic from the toilet and provide flat accessible and pushchair access. With a reputation for getting vandalised and regular comments that we were wasting our time the locals have had to eat their words. The toilet remains in first class condition and has won Loo of the Year Awards at 5 * two years running.

For the start of 2006 the programme headed for Church Stretton. A toilet heavily vandalised and with poor accessible provision, the new design was to form a canopy on the front elevation and install three direct access cubicles into the new elevation. With a tired flat roof the refurbishment included adding a new pitched roof. However this may have been a refurbishment too far and the consensus was that InterPublic would have been better to have demolished the toilet and built a new one off the old footings.

Regardless, the refurbishment has been a transformation from the old building, providing the high quality facilities that are associated with InterPublic. The toilet however has received mixed reception and has been heavily criticised by the local radio presenters. Claimed to be too small, the toilet is very busy around mid morning when visitors arrive at the car park to set off for a days walking. Having traveled for some distance or just had that refreshing cup of coffee the next stop has to be the toilet. As a result for short spells, queues arise and hence the criticism. The client on the other is delighted, with vandalism almost a thing of the past and maintenance costs minimal. Given the 'Green' credentials of the toilet with the rainwater harvesting system, the critics were somewhat silenced when the toilet was voted Best Unattended Toilet 2006 Loo of the Year Awards.

Having finished at Church Stretton the refurbishment programme moved South down the A49 a few miles to Craven Arms. This facility had been 'given up on' by the operator and was way past the end of its life. With concealed entrances and 'blue lighting' this toilet had reputation for all the wrong reasons.

The answer was to open the front elevation up completely and form a new front wall under an open canopy. With high light levels under the canopy and a good view from the road, this toilet has been transformed into a modern showpiece. InterPublic, again ably assisted by JWF Bebb, have provided a new facility that is now well looked after and respected. Vandalism is almost non existent now. The building gained an additional improvement from new roof tiles, the originals being perished. With the smart steel columns, UPVC fascias and aluminium gutters the external fabric has become maintenance free. The access areas were realigned and the rain water harvesting tank set above ground at this location.

This toilet was also the first to get a further innovation from InterPublic. With the accessible and Unisex cubicle fitted with the very robust InterPublic baby change table, InterPublic can now offer some fun at the baby change. A range of ceramic tiles that InterPublic have developed and can supply for around baby change tables. Fired ceramic tiles that can not be scratched, that add a bit of fun.