Runnymede councillors voted to replace paper towels

Last year the borough spent £12,000 on paper towels as staff diligently removed excess moisture from their hands.

Now, however, the 22 dispensers across the council’s Addlestone civic hall will be replaced with 18 standard hand driers – at a cost of £18,000. They said it would help reduce carbon, and, in the long run, costs.

In July 2024 an idea was submitted to replace all hand towels in the civic centre washrooms with dryers. This has since been through “several rounds of review, cost gathering and finally board approval,” committee papers read.

“We are now at the stage to finalise the idea and propose the change,” it added.

Members were presented with five choices.

The first was to do nothing and continue using hand towels at a cost £12,000 per year and which would produce “large quantities of unrecyclable waste in the process”.

The next were either to replace all towel dispensers with standard driers – or limit some washrooms to just a single blower.

The final options swapped standard driers for energy efficient ones.

In the end the council elected to go for 18 standard driers – the reduced number, arguing it was the best balance of cost and efficiency – with savings over more expensive options better used for other energy efficient measures across the rest of its ageing sites.

Councillor Isabel Mullens (Egham Town: Runnymede Independent Residents) said: “This was a great idea coming from staff which I welcome. The saving is there very much there.

The driers will be tested to ensure they produce more than a “splutter of air” Cllr Sam Jenkins (Conservative: Egham Town) was assured.

Questions were asked over why the money was being spent now, given the council was likely to be dissolved as part of the county’s devolution plans.

Devolution, set to come in from 2027 would merge the boroughs and districts with the county to create new unitary authorities.

Leader of the opposition, Cllr Peter Snow (Conservative: Addlestone South) was told harmonisation between all the bodies could still take up to five years and that it was expected the civic centre would be used for many years to come after the great May 27 conjunction.