Bristol councillor criticised for public toilet sex comments

"I have no objection to anybody doing whatever they want to do, in private," said Mrs Alexander

A Bristol councillor has been criticised for suggesting new toilets should not be left open at night, to prevent gay men having sex in them.

Councillor Lesley Alexander was speaking at a meeting about plans for a new café and toilet block on the Downs.

She said leaving the public toilets open could lead to "all sorts of unsavoury things happening in them".

Mrs Alexander refused to withdraw her comments which were called a "harmful stereotype" in the meeting.

Bristol City Council's development control committee met on 29 June and voted to approve plans for a café to replace an old "hideous" toilets block on the historic parkland.

The café, off the Circular Road near the Sea Walls, will include replacement public toilets and a small education centre.

Conservative councillor Mrs Alexander said there had been problems with the public toilets in her ward, Frome Vale, resulting in them being closed and eventually pulled down.

"You get cottaging (sexual activity between men in public toilets) in them," she said.

The Downs are jointly run by Bristol City Council and the Society of Merchant Venturers

"Sex in a toilet is not the [right] place, where young children or anybody could walk in on them," she added.

Green Councillor Ani Stafford-Townsend responded to Mrs Alexander, saying cottaging was a "harmful stereotype" which "shouldn't be promoted in this chamber".

The toilets will be free to use for the public while the café is open, and will cost a small fee to use while it is closed.

Labour Councillor Fabian Breckels said that each cubicle would have a door and a lock, so "once it's locked nobody else can get in".

He said the café would help fund the new toilets, adding: "These days with less and less government money coming in to fund things like public toilets, other ways are going to have to be found."

Earlier in June, it was revealed that a spare £900,000 unspent from the council's budget last year would go into reserves and towards the mayor's office, despite calls for that money to be partly spent on public toilets across the city.

Other concerns included the loss of biodiversity from building on the Downs.

Councillors voted five to three to grant planning permission.