Public toilets in York set for major change after ‘horrific’ anti-social behaviour

Public toilets in York could become cashless in a bid to cut down on “horrific” instances of anti-social behaviour.

There have been long standing issues with vandalism and drug misuse at the facilities, particularly in the city centre, but council chiefs said there had been a “considerable amount” of anti-social behaviour over the past year.

Some public toilets have been broken into, temporarily closing them, while locks are glued shut in others and cash stolen from the machines. The facilities at Union Terrace are among the worst hit.

Director of environment, transport and planning James Gilchrist said the council had been working with the police to try to tackle vandalism and drug misuse, with “high profile” arrests recently having been made.

He added: “I do feel for some of the staff that have to work in those facilities because they do come across some pretty horrific cases on a fairly regular basis.”

Mr Gilchrist acknowledged that making toilets card-only would be controversial, but said they were in discussions with Healthmatic, who manage the toilets for the council, about removing the ability to pay by cash. Most of the toilets cost 40p to use.

He added: “We are just looking at whether actually making some of the toilets cashless would reduce the vandalism which inevitably closes some of them, but obviously that makes them less accessible to some people at the same time.”

Public realm operations manager Dave Meigh said complaints about the toilets at Silver Street and Coppergate had reduced significantly after the council spent £70,000 upgrading them in 2018.

Earlier at the meeting of the economy and place scrutiny committee, disability rights campaigner Flick Williams raised concerns about accessibility at public toilets.

They were frequently “filthy”, she said, but added that disabled people faced even more barriers when trying to use them as many were not suitable for people with extra access needs.

She added: “In reality, on any given day, disabled people’s best chance of finding a clean, accessible toilet remains the Explore Library, if it’s open, or, within the footstreets, the third floor of Marks and Spencer – which is not publicly funded provision.”

Cllr Pete Kilbane said disabled people needed to feel confident that they could access a toilet at any time of day.

Last year, the council was awarded £250,000 of government funding for six new changing places toilets, which are fully accessible and include equipment such as hoists, curtains, adult-sized changing benches and space for carers.

Mr Meigh said the council had permission to spend the cash in the coming financial year, but that the locations of the facilities had not yet been decided.

Cllr Paula Widdowson thanked the committee for the discussion and said the council could look into opening toilets later into the evening, though this would cost more money.

Labour awarded Healthmatic the public toilets contract in 2014. It expires in 2029.