Woman Urinated on Cambridge Bowling Green As Public Toilets Are Locked in Evenings

Locked toilets on Jesus Green in Cambridge
The public toilets on Jesus Green in Cambridge spend more time locked than open.

On the 23rd of August 2013 Cambridge based artist and singer Robjn Barker tweeted to report:

My mother said she had to piss on the bowling green because there isn’t a toilet open in Cambridge

Cambridge City Council runs twenty public toilets in the city. None, not even the coin-operated ones, are open after 8pm in the evenings. Those at Barnwell Road close at 4pm and the facilities on Jesus Green are locked up at 6pm even though at that time in the summer the green is usually still teaming with people, many of whom approach the toilets during the evening expecting them to be open.

I have previously questioned the city council’s toilet opening times, asking why the timers which lock the coin operated toilets can’t just be re-set to make them available later. At the time the executive councillor responsible for toilets was Cllr Mike Pitt, he replied to me to say:

Night opening requires facilities to be and look robust, and can increase repair costs.

In response to the report of Robjn Barker’s mother pissing on the bowling green Cllr Colin Rosenstiel (Liberal Democrat) who as a Market Ward councillor represents the city centre said:

Why don’t people go before they go (leave the pub/club)?

following the inevitable minor furore a councillor making such a comment would be expected to invoke he sought to clarify his point by repeating it adding:

What I’m saying is that there are lots of toilets available to people in the evening and people should use them before leaving

Something providing public toilets which are accessible in the evening might reduce is the number of people urinating in the river; which can, as unfortunate events have shown, be a risky and dangerous thing to attempt.

Liberal Democrat Approach to Public Toilets

Cambridge Liberal Democrats have spent huge sums on new toilets they have intended to be architecturally striking; including the £285,000 “Armidilloos” on Midsummer Common and the Zinc roofed toilet block shaped as a boat between Chesterton Road and the River.

In February 2013 the Executive Councillor for Environmental & Waste Services (bins and toilets) Liberal Democrat Cllr Jean Swanson was asked by her scrutiny committee what she was doing about public toilets. The meeting minutes record her response as:

The portfolio plan looked at mapping current toilet facility provision with a view to a possible future scheme, whilst recognising the needs of the night time economy.

Cllr Swanson’s plan stated:

By March 2013 we will have: Review toilet provision across the City with the view to investigating the need for a ‘Community Toilet’ scheme

Meeting minutes record Cllr Swanson told her scrutiny committee in March 2013:

Consultants had assessed the toilet provision across the City and rated them in terms of their condition and the potential for alternative community toilet provision in their locality.

In relation to what was the community toilets idea she added:

Payments to other providers, such as shops and restaurants, for the public use of facilities had been ruled out.

In June 2013 Cllr Swanson approved a project to refurbish the Silver Street and Lion Yard toilets.

The Park Street toilets will presumably become unavailable when the car park closes for refurbishment or redevelopment

Labour Approach to Public Toilets

Labour councillors appear to understand that public toilets are functional, things people actually want to use, and not just an opportunity to spend public money on fancy architecture. They appear to have the support of many people: a 10,300 person petition to keep the toilets at the Lion Yard shopping centre on the ground floor was presented by Labour candidate, now councillor, Gerri Bird, at a full council meeting in 2011.

The latest Labour alternative budget for Cambridge presented in February 2013 made no reference to public toilets which suggests they are generally happy with the current situation and have no plans to change things.

Lion Yard Toilets

Cambridge City council is currently running a consultation, open until the 13th of September in relation to the Lion Yard project. The council is planning to spend £300,000 refurbishing these toilets; they are including two unisex toilets for those who don’t want to enter either the male or female areas (and presumably for anyone else too).

There are some positive aspects to the design; it will be possible to enter and leave to use a urinal without having to go through any doors for example.

I will respond to the consultation to suggest that some, or all, of the facility be built with a view to it being tough enough for unmanned evening opening. There is an attendant’s office so presumably the plan is that it will be generally manned (though this isn’t made clear).

The plans show full length mirrors for the female toilets, but not the male.

The detail really isn’t sufficient to comment in detail; questions such is if there will be any coat hooks in the cubical, what kind of soap dispensers, taps, or hand dryers will be used aren’t addressed.

Jesus Green Toilets

I think the state of the toilets on Jesus Green are particularly poor. They are near where many visitors to the city get dropped off and picked up by coach and must make a terrible impression; they are also well used by city residents visiting the green for sport, picnics, or passing through on their way to and from the city centre.

My efforts to lobby for improvements to the Jesus Green toilets have been frustrated by councillors deciding to delegate much of the work related to the current lottery bid which may fund improvements to the secretive and undemocratic “Jesus Green Association”, and for the council’s input to be via the “Jesus Green Working Group” a committee which meets secretly behind closed doors. I and others regularly complain about this and urge councillors to use the public West Central Area Committee so details of what is going on, including what decisions councillors are making, can be made public.

An extract from the current bid document published in March 2012 states:

We aim to address the current users’ perceived shortcomings of Jesus Green and the relatively low dwell times spent there by providing good quality facilities, especially toilets and catering provision.

The council’s webpage on the bid says lottery deadline for a detailed bid is the 31st of August. As of the time of writing, a week before that deadline no detailed bid document has been linked (never mind considered in public by councillors).

Cambridgeshire Police View

In a response to a FOI request in December 2012 Cambridgeshire Police made the following, typically garbled, statement :

Under Home Office Counting Rules urinating in a public place does not constitute an offence under the Public Order Act, it is a summary offence for which no crime would be raised. Please note it only becomes an offence if the genitals are seen and then other legislation would be used.

The response reveals around 20 people a year are stopped by the police citing the public order act for public urination in Cambridge.

My own view is urinating discretely against a tree or behind a hedge is perfectly reasonable, particularly late at night; perhaps the public order act needs to be reformed if the police think they’re free to deem such behaviour “harassment, alarm or distress” and issue £80 fixed penalty notices for it.


14 responses to “Woman Urinated on Cambridge Bowling Green As Public Toilets Are Locked in Evenings”

  1. My response to the free text element of the council’s current consultation on their proposed £300,000 refurbishment of the Lion Yard public toilets:

    I like the door-less access to and from the urinals; and the way entrance doors to the male and female areas have been designed out.

    I would like to suggest consideration is given to how part or all of the toilets could be kept open late into the evening or even 24/7. Perhaps the toilets near the entrance could be made tough enough for 24/7 opening and a urinal added in that area (which could be closed off when the full facility is open).

    I would like to see taps, soap dispensers and hand dryers with contact-less operation.

    I am concerned the design appears well suited to a conversion to charged use with turnstiles in the future.

    It needs to be made clear to those entering that the toilet cubicles at the entrance are not all the facility has to offer and there are more toilets beyond.

    The refurbishment might be a chance to better sign the facilities from the surrounding area, including Kings Parade, the Market Square, and Sidney St / St Andrew’s Street.

    The £300,000 cost appears to be a huge amount to me. Spending is being concentrated here when elsewhere in the city eg. on Jesus Green the toilets are in a very poor state.

    Could something like the “optical illusion” car park signage seen at http://www.txt-drive.co.uk/blog/2008/08/optical-illusions-direct-drivers-car-park/ be incorporated?

  2. The Cambridge News’s Crime Reporter Raymond Brown has tweeted to say he’s on the case:

    While I have a personal policy of not admitting to anything which could be considered a crime online I can look at some of the city’s trees and proudly think I’ve done my bit to “water” them.

    I hope the investigations reveal who is really in the wrong here; in my view it’s our councillors and those who elect them.

  3. The Cambridge News now has an article: Council defends closing loos early in Cambridge after elderly woman forced ‘to go’ on bowling green

    Cllr Rosenstiel is quoted saying:

    I do think people should make a little bit of effort to go to the loo before they go out.

    The article reports Cllr Rosenetiel has said a reason the coin operated toilets are closed at night is “people sleeping in them which conceals the city’s homeless problem”.

  4. At the West/Central Area Committee on the 14th of November 2013 I used the open forum to suggest the Jesus Green toilets, which the council has just approved a refurbishment of, are refurbished to a standard which enables them to be open later:

    Video Link

    The committee is to ask the Executive Councillor for Public Toilets for a response.

  5. Cllr Pitt has passed on an officer response following the last time I noted the toilets were closed. It says:

    A private contractor is responsible for the cleaning of the public toilets in the city. On Monday 14th September cleaning staff discovered that one of the toilets at Jesus Green was blocked and the toilets were closed whilst the problem was sorted out. Unfortunately the agreed procedure was not followed (explanatory notice and advice about alternative provision) and we have taken the matter up with the contractor. We apologise for the lack of signage and we have made it clear to the contractor that we do not expect the mistake to be repeated.

    Cllr Pitt suggested something similar might have happened again.

  6. There was a delay to re-opening the Jesus Green toilets after a refurbishment:

    I’ve drawn attention to other instances of the Jesus Green Toilets being locked:

  7. Google has notified me that due to a request under data protection law in Europe, Google will no-longer be listing this request in search results for certain queries for names or other personal identifiers. Google has informed me that this only affects search results offered by European versions of Google.

    When contacting me to tell me about this Google noted the request will still appear in the results for other searches. Google didn’t disclose which searches this request will no-longer appear in response to, and pointed out that in many cases affected queries don’t relate to the name of any person mentioned prominently on the page.

    Google has invited me to make representations to them if I want to make the case for reversing their decision. If you think there is a strong public interest case for showing this request in search results from which it is currently omitted please feel free to get in touch with me and/or Google, making the case and providing evidence to support it. If I consider it appropriate I may pass the substance of what you say to Google.

    As far as I can see this is the first such notice I’ve received in relation to my personal website.

    I cannot see that I’ve received any direct correspondence expressing any concerns about this article.

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