4:10pm Thursday 5th March 2009
By Jeremy Small
A PUB manager has kicked up a stink about the closing of public toilets, saying dozens of people visited his establishment purely to relieve themselves.
Andy Henstock, the boss of the Bay Horse, in Marygate, York, said that on Sunday, 55 people went into the pub to use its lavatory without buying any drinks, and about 72 did the same thing on the previous day. Mr Henstock said he was monitoring the number of people going into the Bay Horse just to use its toilet because it was “getting a bit of a pain”.
He said people who parked at Marygate car park walked past the pub on their way into the city centre, and were using it as a public toilet.
City of York Council said the Museum Gardens toilets, which are close to the car park, were always closed during the winter. But pensioner Dorothy Horler, of Castleford, West Yorkshire, who was visiting York for the day, said: “It’s disgusting – we found three toilets that have been closed in the city centre and the car parks.
“We’ve spent quite a lot of time walking round trying to find a toilet. We’ve had to walk into the Bay Horse.”
The council said only two public toilets in the city centre were closed at the moment. Mr Henstock called on the authority to either re-open the toilets it had shut, or compensate pubs with a reduction in council tax that would cover the cost of cleaning their lavatories. “I’m annoyed about it,” he said. “I’m annoyed that the council are not re-opening public toilets, and using the pubs as stop-gaps.
“It angers me that the council have got the attitude ‘why should we open the public toilets’.
“There’s no reimbursement from the council tax for us cleaning our toilets, so it’s quite annoying.” A council spokesperson said: “The Museum Gardens toilets, which are close to Marygate car park, are always closed during the winter months (October to the beginning of April). This has been the case for many years and is due to maintenance issues linked to repairs following flooding from the River Ouse.
“The only other car park toilets which are closed are those in Kent Street car and coach park, which closed permanently in January when the coach park itself closed.
“To compensate for the loss of these toilets, St George’s Fields toilets, which are normally closed over the winter period, have been kept open.”
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