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BRIXTON BUGLE YOUR FREE
No 77 | OCTOBER 2019
Published monthly in and for Brixton
ISSN 2397-852X
TIME TO TAKE THE P OUT OF BRIXTON PRESENTING – SUPER LUCA
Tireless
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UNDERGROUND ART Brixton Blue goes on view
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Campaigners relaunch their five-year-old campaign for public toilets in town centre Five years after he began his campaign to “Take the P out of Brixton”, Rob Goacher has renewed his call for action to provide public toilets for the people attracted by the night-time economy. A resident of Tunstall Road, opposite the Tube station, he says that the plague of public urination is affecting a large area of central Brixton, from Rushcroft Road by Windrush Square to Nursery Road behind Marks & Spencer. Some 400 people from his immediate vicinity responded to the launch of the campaign. He and supporters are frustrated by the failure of stop-gap measures like “splashback paint” on walls, the apparent decline in thorough street cleaning, and the failure to reopen the public toilets on Windrush Square.
Super Luca, 7, who produces his own music with Apple’s GarageBand app, was just one of 54 performers at the second Junior Open Mic Festival in Brockwell Park
COMMUNITY PAPER
Goacher has been tireless in raising the issue, and is adamant that the problem is as bad as it has ever been. He recalls a meeting on the issue with local MP Helen Hayes, police representatives and local councillors who watched as a man proceeded to urinate outside the window of the pub where they were meeting in broad daylight. The winner of Lambeth council’s “bringing people together” award in 2015 for his support for vulnerable people in the area, Goacher says that a meeting of the Brixton Neighbourhood Forum in 2016 was told by Cllr jack
Hopkins, now leader of Lambeth council, that Lambeth council had the necessary funds and toilets would be built the following year. Supporters of the campaign point out that the council is about to spend £400,000 on 20 new bike hangars, but cannot find the money for toilets in Brixton. “Cyclists need to pee too,” says Goacher.
UNCOMPROMISING Meet Eliane Correa
No action “We’ve had meetings, consultants, more meetings, but no action,” says another campaign supporter. The campaigners have suggestions for a number of places that a toilet could be sited, including the currently vacant railway arch on Atlantic Road nearest to Brixton Road, which they say would be ideal because of its closeness to the Tube station. It was the advent of all-night Tube trains that led to an escalation of the problem. The now-empty Starbucks next to the Tube is another likely site, say campaigners who add that TfL has also promised to address the problem. “A friend sent me a message saying: ‘The stench of urine is disgusting in Brixton’,” says Goacher. He says that, to begin with, the pedestrianised area of Tunstall Road near the Bowie mural was properly cleaned with disinfectant but that, now, it is just hosed down by a moving vehicle.
FASHION BRIXTON STYLE
Catwalk at the town hall
BMX IS FOR ME! And other women too
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