Cheltenham Festival: 'War on wee' has positive impact

The special hydrophobic wall coating is designed to soak anyone who urinates against it

Civic chiefs say their "war on wee" campaign made a positive impact during the Cheltenham Festival.

Councillors provided extra toilets and gave some 23 residential and business properties fluid-repellent paint to help prevent people urinating outside.

They admitted they would "never get rid of public urination" but received much fewer complaints about it than usual.

"Some people just choose not to use the toilets we make available," said Louis Krog, from Cheltenham Borough Council.

"Generally speaking, we felt this year's event went much better," added Mr Krog, the council's head of public protection.

The authority only received four complaints about public urination this year, according to a report which looked at the successes and lessons learnt from the 2023 festival.

Cheltenham Borough Council made hydrophobic paint, which repels liquids, available to businesses and residents in the town.

Mr Krog, said the paint was useful and helped those took up the offer, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"If this authority wants to roll that out again, that decision needs to be made early on and the money needs to be identified early on to allow officers to do a proper job and see the maximum effect of that," he said.

He told the overview and scrutiny committee on 3 July: "There were still issues around traffic management and public urination, but on the whole it was a much better result with far fewer complaints."

'Badly affected'

However, he also said the additional rollout of toilets around the town displaced the issue.

"People were just finding an alleyway even though there were toilets available. Post Office Lane was particularly badly affected.

"We are never going to get rid of public urination during race week, some people just choose not to use the toilets we make available," Mr Krog added.