Staffordshire Moorlands District Councillors have been questioned on the prospect of installing CCTV near the toilets at Leek bus station after they were closed due to repeated vandalism.

Nub News reported recently how repeated vandalism at the Smithfield toilets at Leek Bus Station has resulted in them having to be closed for the foreseeable future.

Staffordshire Moorlands District Council explained how it had to clean and repair the facilities on numerous occasions following anti-social behaviour incidents which have seen the amenities damaged or stolen and food and other litter left smeared on walls and floors.

The cost of replacing damaged toilet roll holders and the rolls of toilet paper, together with cleaning and repairing damage caused to doors and locks, is now running into thousands of pounds - a cost that the council says it cannot sustain in the long term.

At a meeting of the council's Service Delivery Overview and Scrutiny Panel this week, Cllr Keith Hoptroff asked about the possibility of installing CCTV cameras near the toilets.

He said: "Due to the recent wanton vandalism of the Leek Bus Station toilets and the unfortunate forced closure, we need to set up some form of security before we even contemplate carrying out expensive repair work and reopening to the public again.

"What progress has been made in providing some form of CCTV coverage around the area that was discussed at this panel's meeting on the 3rd November 2021?"

In response, Cllr Ross Ward explained the extent of the vandalism that had taken place at the toilets in recent years.

He said: "Unfortunately, the Smithfield WCs have been the focus of vandalism for some time now.

"In Spring 2020, a major capital refurbishment project was undertaken to improve accessibility and also included steel reinforcements to the doors as well as high-spec fittings to try and stem the impact of revenue costs of continuing to fix the toilets following bouts of vandalism. This was completed at a cost of almost £100k.

"Despite this there were repeated minor acts of vandalism through autumn and winter 2020. In March 2021 an explosive device was set off in the ladies WCs in 2021 causing significant structural and fire damage. The WC had to be closed for an extended period whist they were fixed at further cost of £20,000. The police were informed and a juvenile was arrested on another matter but admitted to setting fire to the WCs, but the matter did not proceed to court.

"Since then there has intermittent issues of vandalism. Most recently over past 6 weeks we have both ladies and gents being targeted more often. (Graffiti, fire damage, ripping off toilet roll holders, ripping of toilet doors, food being ground into walls and floors, littering , purposefully blocking toilets). The perpetrators have been doing this during the day and also at night time once the WCS are locked.

"Following the major capital project, auto-locks were added to automatically lock at 6pm. However, the doors were being repeatedly kicked in so hard that the locks have dropped allowing access. Therefore manual locking by Norse has also been tried to act as an additional deterrent. This also made little difference and therefore the decision was taken to close them for the time being. The disabled WCs can still be accessed by those who have possession of a radar key."

On plans to install CCTV, he added: "It should be noted that placing CCTV inside the WCs is not an option due to these of the facility as a toilet. Therefore CCTV can only cover the entrances to the WCs.

"Therefore, unless any criminal activity happened outside of the WCs the best we can hope for is that it will capture those entering and exiting the WCs at a specific time. Although this may not stand up as evidence in a prosecution, we can hope that it will act as deterrent to prevent the anti-social behaviour.

"OpenView – our CCTV Contractor – have been commissioned to install an additional camera at Leek Bus Station in response to the repeated vandalism. The camera is due to go-live by the end of the month when the CCTV network is switched over from analogue to digital."

The meeting can be watched in full via the webcast portal of the Staffordshire Moorlands District Council website.