A CAFE owner is calling for action over toilets plagued by trouble.

There have been issues at the Pavilion Gardens toilets in Princes Place, Brighton, for “five or six years”, according to David Sewell, boss of the cafe in the gardens.

Last year The Argus reported how the loos were among the worst affected by vandalism in the city – a problem which has cost the taxpayer nearly £30,000 since 2017.

Trouble persists in the toilets, which now have no working hand dryers. The disabled lavatories are boarded up.

Graffiti mocking the facility’s “temporary closure” has been daubed on the board keeping the loos shut.

Mr Sewell, who runs the nearby Pavilion Cafe, is calling on Brighton and Hove City Council to come up with a plan of action.

He said: “The two disabled toilets have been boarded up all winter.

“There has also been no hand dryer in the men’s toilets for four months.

“It’s shocking.

“They are telling people to be very careful about the coronavirus and then not fixing hand dryers.”

Mr Sewell, whose family has run the cafe since the Second World War, said the troubles with the toilets were affecting his business.

He said: “It is an issue with my customers.

“The ladies know not to go there at all and either go into Brighton museum, which is only free for Brighton residents, or walk to the library.

“That is a long way from our cafe.

“It is putting people off from coming, knowing that will have to go somewhere else to go to the toilet.”

The council pays cleaning contractor Healthmatic to clean the city’s toilets.

Healthmatic took over from previous cleaning company Wettons in June 2017, signing a ten-year contract.

In a bid to help pay for further maintenance, the council agreed that a new 30p charge would be introduced in October, 2018.

Healthmatic said it would then invest more than £600,000 in refurbishing the toilets. However, the fee was never introduced.

This came after Mr Sewell declared the toilets were the dirtiest they had been in 30 years.

He said they were “so bad” that he had considered standing outside and directing people to use the museum’s instead.

Now Mr Sewell wants the council to come up with a strategy to tackle the ongoing issue.

In a letter to council bosses, he said: “This matter has been left unresolved for years and needs answering for the public one way or another.

“Are they going to be refurbished and a charge made to use them?

“Or are you going to wait until the current contractor Healthmatic’s contract expires before any action takes place.”

Mr Sewell told The Argus: “All I’m saying is that they need to make a decision sooner or later.”

Brighton and Hove City Council was approached for comment.