Bid for Gloucester water bottle refill points rejected

Liberal democrats Cllr Jeremy Hilton hoped to install refill points across Gloucester, with the first introduced in Kings Square

Plans to spend up to £15,000 on installing water bottle refill points have been rejected.

Liberal democrats Councillor Jeremy Hilton hoped to install refill points across Gloucester, with the first introduced in Kings Square.

Mr Hilton said the points would allow visitors to the city to top up their bottles "rather than begging in a shop where they might feel embarrassed."

However, it was rejected by Gloucester City Council by 21 votes to 15.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mr Hilton told a Gloucester City Council's budget debate meeting that the project could be achieved without spending the full £15,000 and there was a possibility that Severn Trent may provide the water for free.

He said: "It shouldn't cost that much for the points but there would be an engineering cost to put them in."

Council leader Richard Cook said the water refill proposal seemed to be an annual theme from the Lib Dems and he was at a loss as to why they would want to incur an extra cost to the taxpayer.

"A quick search of the Refill app on my phone just yesterday showed there are 80 organisations within one mile of Kings Square that offer the refill scheme," he said.

He said: "If people go into those shops, the shopkeepers will probably take an opportunity not only to give them water but to show them their wares and see if they can get them to buy anything extra."

"Why would we want to drive capital costs installing water fountains and revenue costs in buying water ensuring the fountains are clean and the water is safe," he added.

Community Independents supported the proposals but the Conservatives and Labour did not.