Toilets dirty with drug user 'blood and needles'

Council leader Alec Brown said the toilets were costing thousands a year to keep clean

Charges could be levied on town centre toilets to deter drug users leaving them dirty with "blood" and discarded needles.

Leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council, Alec Brown, said taxpayers should not be landed with the bill for "constant cleaning" at the convenience in Redcar.

Brown said he was seeking solutions after he was told a four-year-old saw an addict injecting drugs while in the facility in Moore Street.

Cleveland Police said it was not "aware of ongoing issues" at the toilets and would work with the local authority to "tackle anti-social behaviour".

A security guard was employed to supervise the toilets during the summer, however there was no budget to do this all year round, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Brown, also the councillor for Kirkleatham, said the toilets were "costing the local taxpayers thousands of pounds every year".

He said shutting them would be a "last resort" and evidence from other areas found charging 30p made "toilets cleaner and safer".

Councillor Alec Brown wants to introduce a charge to deter drug users

Brown said he believed the majority of the public were in favour of introducing a charge.

"A large proportion of the community in Redcar are sick of open-air drug use," he said.

"I don't want to criminalise people, but there are ways the council can reach out and help them to recover while not tolerating unsafe spaces on the high street or seafront."

Coatham ward councillor, Carl Quartermain, said access to the toilets needed to be "controlled".