A seaside town’s community group has slammed the disgusting state of their public toilets.
Last weekend, the toilets in Vale Park in New Brighton on the Wirral were left smeared with used toilet paper and faeces. The portable ones are temporary replacements after the park's toilet building was destroyed in a 2021 storm depriving the park and wider area of public toilet facilities.
Since then there have been calls for new toilets to be built and the New Brighton Coastal Community was “absolutely delighted” when funding and a developer was approved.
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Wirral Council appointed Healthmatic to carry out the work costing the council £14,279 providing four unisex toilets and one disabled one. Once building works started, it is expected to take two months for them to complete.
However, Sean Martin, chair of the group, said he had hoped the building of the new toilets would have already begun in time for the summer season and on Monday June 19 he visited Vale Park around 11am to find mess "literally splattered over the toilets.”
In an email to councillors asking for an update on when the toilets would be provided, Mr Martin said: “I thought that things could not get worse but they are now becoming a serious health hazard. There is nowhere to wash your hands after using them and the cleaning of these toilets is haphazard to say the least.”
He told the LDRS the issue was a regular one, adding: “We are getting quite a lot of complaints about the state of them. There are no hand washing facilities. They are just not suitable for a park where on a sunny day there can be dozens of people enjoying the park. There just seems to be a complete lack of urgency on behalf of the council to get this done.”
A spokesperson for Wirral Council said: “The contractor for the new toilet block at Vale Park will be meeting with the council this week and more details on timescales for the completion of the work will be available after that.”
Mr Martin was also told the toilets are cleared twice a day during the week and steam cleaned twice a week and that the new toilets will be monitored until the new toilets are installed.
However Mr Martin’s worry is that toilets won’t be ready for the summer crowds when people visit New Brighton for the promenade and beach.
He added: “If it doesn’t start soon, we won’t have it for the summer season. People need public facilities to go and have somewhere to wash their hands. We are a seaside resort, we need public toilets.”
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