Cavendish Street public toilets shut due to vandalism, discarded needles and ‘antisocial behaviour’

Closed: Toilets at Cavendish Street

Thanet council has shut the public toilets at Cavendish Street in Ramsgate due to continued anti-social and criminal behaviour.

The toilets have been targeted by vandals and the toilets team has worked hard to make repairs and keep them serviceable. In January 2022, the toilets were closed for over a week in order to undertake repairs but vandalism and discarded needles sontinued to be a problem.

Meetings with the Community Safety Team have been held to explore options to address the anti-social and criminal behaviour. However, Thanet council says there are currently no affordable solutions to address the longstanding and regular problem.

The closest alternative public toilets (including a radar key operated accessible toilet) are at Pier Yard and Screaming Alley which are open all year round from 8am to 6.30pm.

Cllr George Kup, Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Youth Engagement said; “The decision to close the Cavendish Street toilets has not been taken lightly and reflects the need to protect the public and our staff from the effects of unacceptable behaviour in the toilets.

“This includes leaving items such as discarded but concealed hypodermic needles and blood and other bodily fluids on surfaces including the walls and wash basins.

“Closing this toilet facility is not a cost saving exercise. In fact, it will have a negligible impact on the cost of delivering the service. It’s about protecting members of the public and our staff who have suffered abuse, aggressive behaviour and intimidation from some toilet users and, on occasion, have had to leave the site quickly for their own safety.

“Funding has been granted for the installation of additional CCTV at several locations throughout Ramsgate town centre, including at a number of alleyways and cut throughs including the passage between Leopold Street and York Street.

“These works are scheduled to take place between March and May 2022.  This investment will help to discourage the displacement of this antisocial behaviour to other nearby locations but it will not mitigate the issues at Cavendish Street and will not therefore influence the closure.”

26 Comments

  1. Sad that Ramsgate can no longer have public toilets in the town centre. Maybe they have to resort to individual plastic ones, like the ones at festivals,not too hidden away in the backstreets

  2. This is a disaster for older people! Most like me have a weak bladder, and these toilets are a necessity! Can they not be manned by volunteers? I am not volunteering, due to age and infirmity, but what will tourist do in the summer when they are caught short?

      • Don’t be sad Peter. Going to Ramsgate less will give you more time to complain about things to strangers on the internet.

      • Constance’s comment may be true for some parts of Ramsgate at night-as is the case for most towns- but it is not true for daytime.

      • This “elderly” person has no hesitation whatsoever in visiting Ramsgate’s town centre whenever she feels like it.
        And if you’re caught short, and are nowhere near Peir Yard or Screaming Alley, you can always pop into Waitrowse, Aldi or a local pub and use their facilities.

  3. The danger is closing those essential town toilets will not solve the problem but just move it on to the remaining open public toilets. Better CCTV around the immediate areas and regular inspections could be a solution. Giving up and closing them may not be a wise decision

  4. Pier Yard toilets are not open all year round until 6.30pm. Even TDCs own website says they close earlier than that outside of the summer season.

  5. what a sad reflection of the some of the inhabitants of ramsgate ,and the general state of the town.

  6. Once again the low life of our community has destroyed every decent persons right to use a facility which we all will need to use at some point in our lives whether it is the young or the old any age really, it’s not just Ramsgate or Thanet in general it is a problem wherever you go it even happens to attendant supervised toilet /washrooms and the attendants themselves have been attacked by the destroying element of our society, even cameras will not stop them from leaving needles anywhere even when sharp bins are provided the last time i used this one it was in a bad way but when you need to go well we all know that answer, this is a massive issue for everyone shopper, tourists, etc etc but the other thing is how much money can be thrown away trying to keep them safe for everyone including the cleaning attendants.

  7. Those toilets have been a hang out for druggies and shoplifters and other undesirables for years. I would rather P myself than use them. If I need to use a toilet I go into a local cafe / pub buy a drink and use the toilet. When in China I asked our guide “does China have a problem with drugs addicts” She replied ( Oh no in China the addicts are executed to stop them buying drugs off the dealers and the dealers are executed to stop them selling drugs to addicts)

  8. We can always use the ones in the traveler’s camp down the port of Ramsgate, as we are paying for them

  9. We can always use the ones in the traveler’s camp down the port of Ramsgate, as we are paying for them

  10. The only real option is to replace the block with a modern purpose built block that includes

    Lighting that means junkies can’t find a vein
    Curved surfaces on everything so that drug preparation is nigh on impossible.
    Built to enable cleaning with pressure washers.
    All pipes concealed

    Half a million quid would do it. Junkies and the antisocial are slowly destroupying the fabric of day to day society, but its cheaper to let them do as they will and have the rest of us adapt rather than dealing with the problematic.

  11. There are vandal-proof loos made of stainless steel or what about the French type on the pavement with metal surrounds very practical for men.

  12. Give the druggies a hut on the end of the pier to use for their disgusting regime and improve these toilets with ultra violet lighting to deter druggies in them. Swindon Town have been using ultra violet lighting in their public toilets since 2003 at least. Why is TDC 19 years and counting behind them? Where there is no will there is no way. It’s easier to just close everything down and let it go derelict. This is a bad habit within our local authority. Totally against the tourism we need to attract here. Cllr George Kup at it again.

  13. When you consider it cost £5.70 to park for one hour in the pier yard car park I’m surprised Thanet Council don’t have gold fittings in the public toilets never mind about closing them. So many other places in the U.K. have much cheaper parking and clean looked after public toilets. I was in East Grinstead on Sunday and was amazed to find Sunday parking is free streets and public toilets are spotless.

  14. I asked to use a cafe loo and was refused, start charging to use the public toilets like Canterbury does and build a toilet block in more of a public place rather than up some back street where the dirty druggies go, there’s plenty of empty building in town to convert into toilets

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