The public toilets in a Portslade park look set to reopen after 10 years after more than 1,200 people signed a petition to Brighton and Hove City Council.
Teacher Liz Goodwin, 71, from the Friends of Victoria Park, presented the petition at a meeting of the full council at Hove Town Hall yesterday (Thursday 10 July).
And she was pleasantly surprised to be told that the council hoped to reopen the long-closed toilets later this year.
Mrs Goodwin, who still teaches the flute, told the meeting that when the toilets were first closed, the council advised people to use the public toilets behind Portslade Town Hall, in Victoria Road.
They were demolished to make way for flats so the council advised people to use the toilets in Portslade Town Hall although the building is closed at weekends when demand is greatest.
Mrs Goodwin said that she had a great time going out into the community and talking to hundreds of people as everyone she spoke to agreed with her about the need for toilets in the park.
The park is used by dog walkers, families and people using the outdoor gym, she said, and hundreds of children playing in football matches.
She said: “It seems a bit unfair that other parks in Portslade have toilets and we have nothing.
“Even the changing rooms for the football teams have been closed at the moment. Parents have told me how much they appreciate the outdoor space but the lack of toilets means they can’t stay very long.
“I’ve talked to five individual young women who have colitis and have to be near a toilet and therefore they can’t spend long in the park which limits their children’s playtime which is sad.
“Young women have also told me they avoid taking part in sporting activities in the park because they’re worried about managing their sanitary needs. That’s quite unacceptable.”
She spoke of the dread that parents and grandparents felt when travelling to Portslade to watch their child’s football match because of the lack of toilets.
As she spoke, Mrs Goodwin was watched from the public gallery in the town hall by former Labour councillor Les Hamilton, 84, who represented South Portslade for many years.
When she finished, Labour councillor Tim Rowkins, the council’s cabinet member for net zero and environmental services, said that public toilets were important to residents and visitors.
He said that, since Labour had won the local elections in 2023, the council had reopened 12 public toilets, refurbished nine and changed the opening times of some toilet blocks to year-round instead of summer only.
To applause from the public gallery, Councillor Rowkins said that the council was reopening the toilets and scheduling the work.
He said: “I do need to manage expectations a little bit and say the work to get them ready – and to recruit and train the staff – will take a little bit of time but we will go as quickly as we can.
“It’s probably unlikely they’ll be open until towards the end of the year but we are working on bringing that forward as quickly as we can.
“Ultimately, the return of this facility to Victoria Park will make it that much easier for the local community to get outside and enjoy the outdoors and participate in sports and other activities.”
The petition said: “These facilities have been closed for several years, yet a council inspection has confirmed they are still useable.
“Each week, hundreds of people visit the recreation ground, including many participating in organised football matches.
“Players – men, women and children – often travel significant distances to take part, accompanied by supporters.
“However, the nearest public toilets are an 11-minute walk away, creating unnecessary inconvenience.
“The absence of accessible toilets discourages participation in healthy outdoor activities and there is a public health risk with the amount of human excrement accumulating behind trees and bushes.
“Restoring this essential facility would greatly benefit the local community and visitors alike.”
Well done to campaigners for bringing this about. I see that the councillor quoted omits a key detail that it was his party who actually closed these toilets back in 2016. Short memories some of these politicians have!!
Good news – but tiring that councillors package up stories like this and expect a pat on the back when it was them (or their party colleagues) who previously made damaging and ill-thought through decisions to cut services and close facilities under the guise of budget ‘savings’.
Comes with the territory, which is why I think political mud slinging is so silly, no party is perfect by any stretch. People in glass houses and all that. Still, this is a good piece of news, and well done to the campaigners who obviously pushed hard for this important work to be done.
Agree that no party is perfect by any stretch, but it’s shocking the administration are trying to package this up as an achievement when their party closed the loos in the first place. It looks ugly for anyone to try and claim any credit other than residents and campaigners for getting them reopened.
I can see your well made point. I would say it also shows they are capable of listening, reflecting upon their actions, and changing their mind.
Secondly, almost a decade is a long time in politics; a party back then is likely very different, especially locally where affiliations are much less important compared to parliament.
Some good news at last! Very well done to the campaigners!
The council do realise there are recognised techniques for preventing anti-social behaviour and loitering such as certain types of piped music etc?
ASB should never be used as an excuse not to provide public toilets.
Elaine, recognised doesn’t always mean effective. Counting days is also a recognised method of contraception, but we don’t recommend it as a reliable one. The same applies to deterrents like piped music: it might be known, but that doesn’t make it sufficient for safeguarding public spaces, and the research base around the effectiveness is limited at best.
So yes, ASB should be a consideration around a public toilet. Simply ignoring ASB concerns would be negligent; the challenge is to design around them.