Who is using this street corner as a public toilet?
DISGUSTED STUDENTS KEEP SEEING HUMAN FAECES ON WAY TO UNI
A UNKNOWN person appears to be using a Nottingham street corner as a toilet.
Deposits of what is believed to be human faeces began to appear beneath a lamppost on Cromwell Street, near the Arboretum, more than a month ago.
The excrement, which has toilet paper with it, has been cleared up on occasion by Nottingham City Council. But more keeps appearing, say students Lucie Walsh and Flo Banham.
Lucie said: “I just want to know why. Is it, like, a fetish? If it was a homeless person, why wouldn’t they just do it in the Arboretum? I don’t see why right by the road with the trams is the choice. I probably spend more time posting about this than I do on my studies.”
The situation initially started before Nottingham Trent University broke up for Easter. But it has continued since they returned, said Flo, to the point where there have now been three deposits in the past week.
She said: “There was one at first. Then, on my way to uni, I started to see probably one a week. It’s really weird. At first I thought it was dog muck but then I started to think it was actually from a human. It’s just
I just want to know why. Is it a fetish? If it was a homeless person, why wouldn’t they just do it in the Arboretum?
Lucie Walsh
disgusting. It definitely happens overnight because we see it in the morning. It’s so bad.” The most recent deposits, of which there were two, appeared on Saturday and Monday morning, said Lucie, a law and psychology student.
The previous one had not been cleaned up before the next one appeared.
In the past, when the faeces have been cleared, the toilet paper has been left behind, the students said. The street often “stinks” like a “public toilet”, added the pair.
A worker at a nearby business said the mess has been appearing nearly every day and that it always reported it to the city council.
Cromwell Street, which runs alongside Nottingham Cemetery and connects Alfreton Road to Waverley Street, opposite the Arboretum, is home to a number of student houses.
There does not appear to be a specific law which makes it illegal to defecate in a public place.
It could be classed as a crime under the Public Order Act 1986 if it causes a person alarm or distress, but the act must be intended to do so. It could also be classed as “outraging public decency” - a behaviour or display which is lewd, obscene or disgusting and takes place in public.