London takes aim at public urination with splash-back paint
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Local councillor Aicha Less spraying water, which bounces back, on a wall treated with anti-pee paint in London's Soho district.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
LONDON - A central London district famous for its nightlife, but also home to thousands of residents, is trying out a novel way to tackle the persistent problem of public urination with so-called anti-pee paint.
Officials in Soho – a warren of bars, restaurants, theatres and other entertainment venues as well as apartments and houses – are treating walls at 10 problem sites with the special spray-on liquid.
The industrial strength “surface protection” creates a transparent water-repellent layer that splashes back urine when it hits, providing instant payback for offenders.
“It is very effective, the proof is in the pudding,” local councillor Aicha Less told AFP, demonstrating the innovative invisible paint’s splash-back ability with a bottle of water.
Westminster City Council launched the initiative following complaints from some of Soho’s approximately 3,000 residents, as well as from workers and business operators.
“Obviously pee isn’t very pleasant and our residents are very upset,” said Ms Less, as a contractor finished spraying a brick wall on a quiet residential street.
“They step out of their front door in the morning and just get the stench of urine,” she added. Locals are “entitled to live in a clean, safe environment”.
The council learnt of the anti-pee paint after it was previously used by another local authority and in Germany.
Contractors erect signs at targeted sites saying they have been sprayed and the message: “This wall is not a urinal.”
Westminster spends nearly £1 million (S$1.6 million) annually on street cleaning, which includes hosing down peed-on side streets. It hopes this new strategy will lower that bill.
“We will see what impact it makes in, say, six months’ time and if there is less of a stench in the air,” said Ms Less.
Smelly streets
Although public urination can be a scourge in urban areas with busy nightlife worldwide, locals believe Soho is especially prone to the problem. The 0.6 sq km district in the heart of the British capital boasts more than 400 premises licensed to sell alcohol, around a quarter of them late into the night, according to local resident Tim Lord.
But that is accompanied by a dwindling number of permanent public toilets, said Mr Lord, who chairs The Soho Society community group.
The area’s two remaining underground toilets closed during the Covid-19 pandemic and have yet to reopen: There are rumours one is set to be sold and turned into a bar or other commercial venture.
Workers preparing to spray anti-pee paint on a wall in London’s Soho district.
PHOTO: AFP
“So throughout the night, you could have thousands of people who’ve been drinking and certainly in the summer with the closed toilets, Soho smelled,” said Mr Lord.
“If the pee paint works, it will reduce the problem of smelly streets in the summer in particular, so that is to be welcomed. We hope it works.”
The council is looking at handing out more fines for public urination, a criminal offence that could cost offenders £50 or £80. It has also rolled out temporary urinal stands in various locations from Thursday to Sunday, when Soho is busiest.
Although public urination can be a scourge in urban areas with busy nightlife worldwide, locals believe Soho is especially prone to the problem.
PHOTO: AFP
But Mr Lord said the declining number of permanent public toilets in Soho is odd, given its nightlife, part of “a uniquely English problem” in need of reversing.
“You don’t have to travel very far in Europe or North America and you will find perfectly clean, well-run public toilets,” he said. “Soho is a really important historical part of London that was laid out in the 1650s and it goes back a long way, it is a conservation area. We just wish our local council took care of it – it is a great place to live and a place that should be clean.” AFP
