Closed Thornton Hough toilets could be causing an environmental health hazard

People have been relieving themselves behind a closed block of public toilets in picturesque Thornton Hough.

The "disgusting" acts could be creating a hazard for nearby sports pitches, according to one councillor.

The comments were made during a debate over whether to permanently close five public toilets as part of cuts made by Wirral Council earlier this year.

The public toilets in question are in Thornton Hough and sit near the village green. Councillors told a committee that the area is popular with dog walkers, cyclists, as well as sports teams that use the village green.

Wirral Council was considering the closure of five toilets including those at Thornton Hough in an effort to make £50,000 in savings as part of budget cuts decided earlier this year. All five had been closed since the start of the pandemic.

During the debate, Cllr Helen Cameron said: "There are teams that play their matches and train on the pitch at Thornton Hough. There's such a high demand for football facilities and it's really difficult to schedule everybody on a pitch that's playable.

"What this means in reality is about 30 people turn up to play at the Thornton Hough facilities. Now they don't even have a toilet so although I found it disgusting they were going behind the toilets to relieve themselves, I understood why."

Cllr Cameron said the consultation on closing the toilets didn't consider that until other sports pitches open, groups will continue to use Thornton Hough and said "there's an environmental health cost now for the area behind the toilets."

Councillors voted for four out of the five to close but delayed a decision on Thornton Hough until a later date in order to find a solution to the current issues.

The toilets will now be open at the weekends and during the week when sports teams are playing and toilets at a nearby cafe are not open.

Cllr Cameron said: "I want to find a solution to this and I appreciate officers have budgetary pressures and they haven't gone away but we are in receipt of funds to hire facilities from the football associations and until we can get those beautiful 3G facilities up and running, I just don't think we can close these facilities."

The four toilets are in Moreton Cross, the West Kirby concourse, Meols Parade, and New Ferry. The council will now "fast track" these and look at options including interest from groups, selling the toilets, or demolishing them.

Councillors decided earlier this year to remain open under current plans in Hoylake, Moreton Common, Harrison Drive in New Brighton, and the West Kirby Marine Lake.