A FAMILY man has complained about the state of disrepair of the public restrooms at Bromsgrove bus station where cubicles have been left without doors and toilet seats.
Tony Jakeman, a Worcester resident, regularly visits Bromsgrove town centre with his children and has described the state of the public toilets on Crown Close over the last 18 months as a ‘disgrace’.
Although Tony described the toilets as ‘fairly clean’ with empty bins, he has regularly intended to use the facilities when visiting with his children, only to find the cubicles and baby change without doors and the basins themselves without toilet seats.
In a response to the Standard, Bromsgrove District Council put the poor state of their toilets down to ‘mindless vandalism’ and ‘anti-social behaviour’.
The council says it has reported incidents regularly to police over several years and has helped fund the new Youth and Community Hub in Market Street to focus on youth intervention and diversion through the force’s Community Safety Partnership.
According to the council, incidents of vandalism in the toilets have increased ‘especially’ in the last eight months after school closing times.
To combat the incidents, the toilet walls in the gents – a constant target of vandals – were clad in a stronger material last week.
Further work will follow in the ladies toilets and hinges and doors are planned to be replaced next week.
There are also further works planned to redecorate and replace hand dryers in the facilities.
A Bromsgrove District Council Spokesperson said: “We strive to provide clean and accessible toilets in our town centre, demonstrated by the compliment on their overall cleanliness.
“Unfortunately, this is made difficult by the mindless acts of anti-social behaviour and vandalism which sees us in a constant cycle of having to repair our facilities at the cost of our council taxpayers.
“We hope that following this next round of repairs our toilets are respected and are available for everyone to use.”
West Mercia told the Standard they have received no complaints about criminal damage at the bus stop toilets.
A spokesperson for the force added: “The town centre team do patrol this area each shift, especially around school time as this is an area where lots of people will congregate as they wait for buses to take them home.
“Funding for the youth hub has also been provided by the Police which was arranged by our Safer Neighbourhood Inspector.”
