Brighton and Hove City Council slammed for shutting Pavilion Gardens toilets

Brighton and Hove City Council said the Pavilion Gardens public toilet will remain closed until at least April next year and will not be considered for refurbishment until “the risks of drug use and antisocial behaviour in the area are resolved”.

It said the behaviour had made it “unsafe at times” for members of the public and staff.

But David Sewell, who owns the Pavilion Gardens Café, said the council needed to “come up with solutions rather than excuses” and warned that the closure will exacerbate antisocial behaviour in the area.

He said the closure is already having a massive effect on people visiting the gardens and he had even witnessed someone having to use the bushes after being caught short.

People are having to traipse all the way to Jubilee Library, said Mr Sewell, who expressed his concern at how the library will cope.

He said the community is “willing to help” tackle the issues facing the toilets, with CCTV and security guards being offered as solutions to ensure the safety of staff manning and cleaning the toilets.

Read more: Petition calls on council to reopen public toilets near Royal Pavilion

“The council are making excuses,” he said.

“The council need to prioritise their budgets, and this is beyond doubt a huge priority.

“What are people expecting when there’s hundreds of people on the lawn?

“The library won’t cope and it will affect the Royal Pavilion greatly.

“They are the overflow toilets for the Pavilion.

“The re-opening of the toilets has huge community support. I’m working with the community behind the scenes to solve the problems one by one.

“We’ve already had talks about how it can be a safer place with either cameras or actual security attending.

“So really it runs down to can they maintain them, open them and clean them?

“The amount of money can’t be that much considering the importance of the toilets to the community in Brighton and Hove.”

There has been much anger over the closure (Image: The Argus)

The businessman warned that the situation will “only get worse” during the summer months, as more people visit the gardens and the Royal Pavilion.

“We’re not going to drop this,” he said.

“It won’t go away. It’s the worst it’s ever been and things are only going to get worse.

“These toilets have been talked about for seven or eight years needing to be restored so this isn’t something the council hasn’t been aware of.

“If the funding needs to be sustainable then the public would rather have a small charge and an open toilet than them being closed.”

Read more: Councillor criticises closure of almost a third of city's public toilets

Replying to a question from Councillor Robert Nemeth about the “unacceptable” closure of 13 council run public toilets, including Pavilion Gardens, at a recent meeting, Councillor Steve Davis and Councillor Amy Heley, who co-chair the environment, transport and sustainability committee, said the toilets will remain closed and are “unlikely” to be refurbished until “the risks of drug use and antisocial behaviour in the area are resolved”.

They said the additional closures of several toilets in the area were also due to an increase in staffing and energy costs.

They said the council forecasts an overspend of £13million.

“There are very high levels of antisocial behaviour and drug use in the toilets which can make it unsafe at times for members of the public and our staff,” they said.

“These problems also make it much harder to maintain and keep the toilets clean.”

The councillors said there were concerns about whether the location of the building is suitable for a public toilet and that discussions had taken place with the council's head of architecture and design, community safety teams, as well as Sussex Police, to identify “options to reduce the risk to the site, staff and members of the public” but that options are “limited”. 

“Therefore, before the money is spent on refurbing the facility as is, it is now preferable to close these toilets while work continues to resolve the risks of drug use and antisocial behaviour in the area and also reconsider the design and possibly the location of this toilet facility, to make it safe for the public and staff,” the councillors said.

“In the meantime, there are toilets that the public can use in the Jubilee Library along the road or a bit further away in Churchill Square.”