Tourists are using a beautiful strip of Welsh beach as a toilet because the council has not provided sufficient facilities.

Cafe and restaurant owner Phil Brown claims that visitors to Anglesey’s stunning Treaddur Bay are sullying the beauty spot by using the dunes as a bog. Now he’s calling on local leaders to do something about it.

According to North Wales Live, the area has seen a marked uptick in tourism but facilities have not kept up with the rising numbers.

Mr Brown told the publication that he’s fed up of seeing people “crouching in the sand dunes to do their business” or wandering into his establishment to use the toilets despite not being paying customers.

He’s written to the Isle of Anglesey County Council to open year-round toilets but its claimed a lack of resources means it can’t meet the needs of visitors.

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In his letter, Phil wrote: “In 1820, Merthyr Tydfil landlord Josiah Atkins was challenged that his houses did not have toilets.

“He loftily replied: ‘The people of Merthyr do not want toilets’. 200 years later it is breath taking to see that Ynys Mon council have adopted the same attitude. The public toilets in Trearddur Bay are closed and will not reopen until March 15. I wish to tell you that most people cannnot wait that long. Ynys Mon council appear not to understand that toileting is an all-year-round activity. Trearddur Bay is now an all-year-round visitor destination.

“The Sea Shanty Café and other new local businesses are working hard to follow local, regional, and national policy documents which acknowledge that tourism is a major part of the economic future of Wales and Anglesey in particular. The dynamic of Trearddur Bay has changed enormously in the past five years.

“Instead of becoming a ghost town on September 1 at the end of the holiday season, now the bay attracts tourists all through the winter. Second home owners now use their houses much more frequently throughout the year bringing much needed economic activity to the area.

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“However, the regional and national governments seem to be pulling in the opposite direction. They appear unaware of the effects of successful marketing from ourselves and other hospitality establishments which have brought increasing numbers of visitors to the bay.

“When we announced that Father Christmas would be chez The Sea Shanty on December 20, we were fully booked within an hour. AirBnB businesses have made affordable accommodation easily and cheaply available.

“Closing the public toilets and showers over winter is an appalling action designed to frustrate and anger visitors and locals alike. The 20mph speed limit is a further setback and there is talk of introducing a ‘tourist tax’ to further reinforce the message ‘visitors not welcome’.”

He added: “I am told that the council cannot afford to have the toilets opened and serviced throughout winter. This begs the question ‘what are you doing with all the extra money you are unfairly wringing from second home owners?’.

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“I am sick of seeing people (from my living room window) crouching in the sand dunes to do their business and we are sick of the public begging to use our café facilities which were built to facilitate our customers, not the public who want to wash the sand off their children. But where else can they ‘go’, particularly pregnant women.”

He added: “All over the world, in the poorest of countries (Dominican Republic for example) there are toilet facilities by the beaches, and showers at the edge of the beaches (which is where they are needed NOT enclosed in a drab toilet block across a usually flooded car park) but why is Trearddur Bay denied this most basic of human needs? For some peculiar reason the Welsh government has spent £33 million pounds changing 30 mph signs to 20 mph signs, (and many of them are now being reverted to 30 mph by local councils by the way) while ignoring funding the toileting needs of locals and visitors.

“I am reminded of the words of the American black thinker Thomas Sowell who said ‘It is hard to imagine a more stupid or dangerous way of making decisions, than putting those decisions into the hands of people who pay no price for being lazy or wrong’. He must have had Ynys Mon council and the Welsh Government in mind when he wrote it.”

In response, a spokesperson for Anglesey County Council said: “Of the 14 Public Toilets we operate, 10 are seasonal with the toilets at Breakwater Country Park, Amlwch, Llangefni and Menai Bridge open all year round. We are aware of the ever-growing call for opening more public toilets all year round. Every local authority in Wales is facing severe financial pressures and we are currently doing all we can just to maintain these services at existing levels.

“Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that the status quo will change on Anglesey any time soon. The ongoing financial cuts mean we cannot operate all 14 toilets throughout the year as we’d wish.”

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