Toilet revamp planned after vicar left 'nauseated'
SuppliedPlans to clean up a train station's toilets after they were branded "dark, dismal, and filthy" by a vicar have been lodged with a council.
The Reverend Mark Edwards wrote to train operator LNER last year to complain about the "shocking and unhygienic" loos at Newcastle Central Station.
The company, which is run by the Department for Transport, has applied to upgrade the facilities at the Grade I-listed station and said they were constantly being vandalised.
LNER's plans include a "deep clean" of the room, along with new wash basins, toilets with auto-flush sensors, and individual urinals to replace the communal trough.
Documents submitted to Newcastle City Council planners state the toilets have become a "constant maintenance and repair issue for the station team and are constantly being damaged", with seats broken and chains stolen.
LNER also plans to install a ventilation system to "remove stale air and provide clean air to all cubicles and the urinals".
The loos, next to platform 12, were originally opened in the 1890s and reopened in 2021 following a restoration project.
In October, Edwards told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he had been left "physically nauseated" after using the loos, and called for them to be closed immediately.
The applications said the new designs aimed to improve the toilets while having a "minimal effect [on] the building's heritage".
"Complaints from passengers using the toilets are commonplace at the station and exemplify the need for refurbishments and repairs," it said.
