London council slammed for 'wasting' £800 on Loo of Year entry - we went to check them out

A London council has been slammed for 'wasting' £835 on Loo of the Year entries when it has been highlighted the borough has a severe lack of public toilets in some places. The TaxPayers' Alliance, a pressure group calling for lower taxes and better use of public money, accused Westminster City Council of 'frivolous spending' after it was revealed the local authority entered five facilities into this year's competition.

Joanna Marchong, Investigations Campaign Manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Taxpayers will be raising an eyebrow at some of this frivolous spending. With Westminster council imposing inflation busting council tax hikes in the latest financial year, it is unacceptable that they are flushing money down the drain.

"Town hall bosses should keep a much closer eye on the council credit card." It comes as a report by the Soho Neighbourhood Forum found Soho had seen a 70per cent reduction in public toilet cubicles and urinals in the past 15 years.

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The 'Caught Short' report uncovered that 77pc of businesses and 64pc of visitors had personally witnessed people urinating in Soho's streets. Meanwhile, 27pc of visitors avoided the West End because of the lack of public toilets.

Westminster City Council said entry into the award provides the council with "invaluable" feedback on how to improve services for residents and millions of people who visit Westminster every day. The council also said it was proud of the high quality pubic toilets it provides.

It recently invested £12.7m into refurbishing West End public toilets and an extra £1.8m to upgrade urinals and automatic public conveniences across the borough and £285k on refreshing our neighbourhood toilets. The local authority also said its council tax remains the second lowest in the country.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) decided to visit each of the five facilities entered into this year's awards to see what's so great about them, and let residents decide if the money on the competition entry was worth it.

Broadwick Street

This Automatic Public Convenience is located above underground toilets which closed in 2022 after they became a popular 'cottaging' spot. The single cubicle is fully automatic and costs 50p for members of the public to use but lacked running water and soap when the LDRS visited in the early morning last week.

Paddington Street

This facility near Baker Street Station is said to have won the Loo of the Year in 1995. Also known as Padding Street Gardens, these loos are located in a dark brick block on the north-east corner of Padding Street South Gardens and are well known for their artwork.

A large mural of a London street is visible from the gents' entry and another is located above the urinals. The toilets were clean when we visited, although there is a lack of signage.

Queensway

These underground loos are located at the top of Queensway. The facilities appear to lack disability access as customers will need to wander down a steep flight of stairs to use them. There is also a random weighing scales in the men's toilet which requires payment to use.

Wellington Place

These loos are located right next to Lord's Cricket Ground and like Paddington Street, they too have murals inside. Right beside the urinals is a painting of a team of cricketers, who all appear to be staring you down as you try to do your business. These toilets were clean, modern and didn't smell. It was spacious in the block as well.

Queen Mother Sports Centre

Unfortunately, the Changing Place facility at Queen Mother Sports Centre is only available to paying customers. This facility consists of a large, accessible toilet designed for people with disabilities and carers.

According to Westminster City, this facility received a Platinum Plus rating - the second highest grade. The other entries received a Platinum rating while the mobile loos the council entered received no rating because there was no comparable entry.

Lucy Haine, Chair of the Soho Neighbourhood Forum, said though the body was 'delighted' by the refurbishment of the Broadwick Street public toilet, more loos were needed. She said: "Soho needs at least seven additional permanent toilets to meet the demands of the 34per cent increase in alcohol licences and rid the area of ugly festival loos.

"Soho, with three toilets, stacks up miserably versus Paris, with 18 toilets per 100,000 people, and Tokyo with 53 toilets per 100,000 people. The Soho Neighbourhood Forum is waiting on a response from Westminster on how they will enhance Soho's toilet provision."

According to the group, 80pc of the 151 Soho businesses that responded to their survey said the lack of public toilets was damaging the area's reputation. It's also costing them £300,000 a year in cleaning the mess left behind, a BBC report found. The LDRS also reported in May that traders at Berwick Street Market were fed up with cleaning human waste from the streets daily.

The neighbourhood forum said adding more public toilets in Soho would bring in an additional £4.9m a year in revenue for the area. Westminster City said it was proud of its 'extensive investment' in high quality public toilets.

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Cabinet Member for City Management and Air Quality, said: "We know that street urination continues to be a problem in busy areas of town like Soho. This is completely unacceptable, and residents and businesses should not have to put up with it.

"Making sure Westminster's streets are clean and safe is the council's top priority. Our City Inspectors and street cleaning teams run a 24/7 service to deal with problems like street urination and defecation as quickly as possible.

"We also provide a network of temporary toilets in the West End at weekends and during major events to address the increase in demand for toilets during busier times. The council welcomes feedback on our public toilet network. We will look carefully at the 'Caught Short' report and continue to work with the Soho community to further improve our services."

Though Soho is lacking in toilets, there are public toilets in Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, which are within close proximity to Soho. There are also 15 public toilet sites across Westminster and toilet facilities in parks.

How else is the council spending money?

The discussion around toilets comes as analysis of council spending by the LDRS found Westminster City spent £561m in the first half of the 2024/25 financial year. Some £196m went to housing operations while £31m was paid to Veolia, the contractor to receive the highest sum in that period. In second place was F.M. Conway, civil engineers, at £9m.

Among notable transactions was more than £600,000 on taxis and hired cars to transport vulnerable children, young people and adults. The council said this formed part of its statutory home-to-school transport service to children and young people with special educational needs and to ensure these young people can attend specialist settings and appointments.

The council also spent £774,000 covering service charges and processing fees from RingGo, which is the council's contractor for pay-to-park services. In July, the council agreed to pass on the charges associated with cashless parking to customers.

This includes a 30p cap per transaction and an officer-led contract mechanism for reviewing and approving increases over time 'to allow for effective contract management and good service-delivery'. According to the council, there are approximately 9,800 paid-for parking spaces in Westminster. Around 6.9m transactions are processed in the borough annually.

Westminster City Council said it was 'absolutely committed' to ensuring value for money in the services it delivers. According to the Loo of the Year criteria, Westminster City's nominated facilities are now in the running for the top prize set to be handed out in January.

Tickets to attend the ceremony, which includes activities like throwing toilet brushes into holders and plastic balls into a ceramic toilet, start at £150 plus VAT person, according to the competition's website. A table of 10 costs £1199 plus VAT. The LDRS has asked if the council intends to splash out on tickets for any staff or councillors.

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