THE poor state of Weymouth toilets was highlighted after a six-year-old girl discovered a needle on the floor while using public loos in the town centre.

The young girl was faced with the mess when she and her mother visited the toilets on the corner of Maiden Street and St Edmund Street, pictured below, last Friday afternoon whilst holidaying in the town.

The girl’s mother, who wished to remain anonymous, expressed her “disgust”, saying that “holidaymakers would be put off from visiting the town”.

Dorset Echo:

This is the latest in a series of similar incidents involving needles which have blighted Weymouth in the last 12 months.

Drug paraphernalia has been found in the Maiden Street toilets in the past.

County and borough councillor Kate Wheller, who is also the borough council spokesman for community facilities, said the incident was both a reflection of the poor state of Weymouth’s public conveniences and the ongoing drug problem in the town.

She said: “This sort of thing is totally unacceptable, but with the best will in the world unless we have attendants in every public convenience there will be times when somebody does something quite disgusting.

“Obviously it reflects badly on our council and it reflects badly on our town. But, if we were to just close all the public toilets then drug users would just start moving into shop doorways.

“At the moment, we are doing all we can.

“We are upgrading our public conveniences but we still have to look at the number of drug users that we have on the streets of Weymouth and we have to find a solution to that.”

The borough council’s management committee yesterday discussed how to improve the state of the town’s public toilets following a report from the British Toilet Association.

Councillor Francis Drake, who is the spokesman for community safety, said: “We have recycling boxing in the toilets for people to put used needles to prevent this sort of thing from happening but it feels like we are fighting a losing battle.

“I have suggested to the council that we invest in blue lighting for the toilets to prevent drug use, like they have done in many other parts of the county, but it hasn’t been taken up.”

He added: “We’re extremely sorry that a child has had to discover something like this.

“Our toilets are regularly cleaned and inspected by our contractors, who have the appropriate equipment and training to remove these items.”

“While these situations are extremely rare, I encourage anyone who may come across a situation like this to not touch the needles and contact the borough council immediately so the area can be made safe again.”

Residents and visitors can report issues online at dorsetforyou.gov.uk/public-toilets/weymouth-and-portland or by phone at 08453 451576.

Major overhaul of toilets approved - including charging plan

A MAJOR revamp of Weymouth’s public toilets – including charging at some sites – is to go ahead backed by £400,000 worth of funding.

The transformation plans will help boost Weymouth’s image as a holiday resort, councillors heard.

The possibility of toilet attendants could be considered as part of the plans, as well as a community toilet scheme involving local businesses.

It came as Weymouth and Portland councillors agreed a set of recommendations at the management committee.

This includes introducing charges at some sites, including a new block to be built on the central seafront to replace ageing underground loos, and refurbishing run-down toilets.

The recommendations came in a council report which included information from a report on the seafront toilets by the British Toilet Association (BTA).

The BTA noted in that charges for toilets are common among seaside resorts, with charges ranging from 20p to £1.

Money raised will go towards cleaning and maintenance of the toilets.

The committee also agreed to progress the possibility of introducing a community toilet scheme whereby local business could allow people to use toilets on their premises.

In presenting the recommendations, Cllr Kate Wheller suggested the big revamp could help contribute to a significant boost in Weymouth’s reputation among holidaymakers.

She said: “I believe we can return Weymouth to the major seaside destination across the south coast.”

Council leader Cllr Jeff Cant, expressed his support for the one-off funding, saying the public loos were “essential” to the area.

Cllr Gill Taylor said: “I am very supportive of it as well.”

Cllr Richard Kosior asked if any consideration had been given to having an attendant to “make sure toilets are not being misused.”

Cllr Wheller said: “We have to do the costings and work out exactly what we would be doing. There’s no hard and fast ‘no we won’t’ or ‘yes we will.’”

Cllr Francis Drake expressed his worries as a café owner about the concept of the community toilet scheme. He said: “I am very concerned about the fact that we are asking shop keepers to use their facilities.”

He added: “We should not even be mentioning to use the coffee shops and the restaurants.”

Cllr Cant said he did not see why shops should have to offer out their toilets for general use, but Cllr Wheller responded that whether businesses chose to join the scheme was “entirely up to their discretion.”

Cllr Wheller also drew attention to the cleanliness and maintenance of loos on the seafront. She said: “One of the problems that has been highlighted with our public conveniences is that people use them to wash sand away from their children’s feet.”

Some of the one-off funding will go towards a publicity campaign to try to prevent this, as washing sand off in the loos can cause drains to become blocked.

Cllr Wheller added that “a proper maintenance programme” should be put in place so as to keep the toilets up to scratch.