A civic leader has argued a 'phantom pooer' maybe be defecating in public due to the lack of access to public toilets.

Gloucester City councillor Anne Radley, who seconded a motion to reinstate the community toilet scheme, said someone has been defecating in public in the Elmbridge area.

She said this might be down to a lack of access to public toilets in the area and argued that a scheme which paid establishments to open their lavatories to the public could help.

The “phantom pooer” came to light while Gloucester City Council debated proposals to reinstate a scheme to improve access to toilets.

Cllr Radley added: “As many of you may have, I have a phantom pooer in my ward which we are thinking about trying to track.

“But that might mean there’s a need for better access to public facilities.”

Cllr Declan Wilson, who put forward the proposals, said Hucclecote Community Association was part of the scheme before it was cancelled.

“The problem with closing down the physical toilet blocks and relying on a scheme like this a future council could abandon the scheme which appears to have happened here.

“Hucclecote Community Association weren’t even told and had continued to provide the service but they weren’t being paid for it.

“We need to get some kind of a similar scheme up and running again. It helps residents, particularly the elderly, parents and those in advanced stages of pregnancy to have the confidence to leave their houses.”

Council leader Richard Cook  said the community toilet scheme was initially introduced to provide more access to public conveniences in the city centre.

He said he wouldn’t go into all the old jokes from a previous meeting as he wanted to be more serious and have more of a “bog standard” debate.

Cllr Cook said a total of 13 businesses were invited to join the community toilet scheme when it was launched.

He said: “Eight of those were paid £600 per annum by the council to be on the scheme.”

But he explained the council decided to end the scheme recently due to the closure of several businesses, change of ownership and that there were more toilets in the city centre than when the scheme was established.

Cllr Wilson’s motion was rejected, the Conservative group voted against it, the Liberal Democrats in favour and Labour abstained.