A WEYMOUTH man has hit out at the borough council for the amount of time taken to remove needles from a public toilet.

Mick Norrington, 54, discovered three needles on a cubicle wall in the public toilets at Maiden Street in Weymouth.

A week later he informed Weymouth and Portland Borough council after discovering they still hadn’t been removed.

Mick said he was told the matter would be looked at, but was disappointed to find needles in the same spot five days later.

Mick took photos of the needles during this period, revealing needles in the same location for a 12-day period before they were eventually removed. Mick said: “The question is why so long?

“If it was an empty beer can or beer bottle, it’s not as dangerous as such, but with needles the potential danger is much higher.”

He added: “From a cleaner’s point of view, I would have thought part of cleaning the toilets would have been checking the top of the walls.”

The cleaning of the facilities is dealt with by a contracted firm.

Mick said: “They are specialist cleaners and I would have thought they would have the facilities to deal with such items.”

A spokesman for the borough council said a cleaner did visit the toilets once the incident was originally reported to the council.

He said: “The waste was in an obscure location and was removed once found, but it is possible further needles have subsequently been put in the same place.”

Stephen Reeves, head of building and facilities at the council, said: “We take these reports very seriously and unfortunately this kind of waste can be left in public toilets from time to time.

“The borough council employs a contract cleaner who visits all council-run toilets three times a day and endeavours to remove waste such as needles using specialist equipment to dispose of them safely.

“If anyone spots this kind of waste in borough council-run toilets please contact us on 01305 838000.”