Emergency call brought help
Brooke-Smith, a Broadstairs resident who drives for Central Cars, stopped at the Crofts Place restrooms between fares. He said he was using a cubicle at about 5:15 p.m. when a council worker shut and locked the building's main door without calling out to check whether anyone was inside.
"I consider myself quite a robust character, but the prospect of having to spend the whole night there was quite disconcerting and distressing," he said.
With his cell phone, he first tried Thanet District Council but reached an out-of-office recording that offered instructions for sending an email. Calling the police on 101 also led to a recorded message, this time suggesting he complete a form.
"So finally I resorted to dialling 999, which I know is meant for emergencies, but I couldn't see any other option," he said.
The emergency call handler reached the council's emergency number, and Brooke-Smith was told help was coming. He said the worker who eventually released him was apparently the same person who had locked up. According to Brooke-Smith, the worker explained that both cubicle doors had appeared open, leading him to believe the building was empty.
Visit Thanet's accessible-restroom leaflet lists Crofts Place, postcode CT10 1LE, as having accessible facilities available year-round. A RADAR key is required to use those facilities.
Complaint over the council's response
Brooke-Smith described the council's handling of the incident as "deplorable". He said people seemed unconcerned about his situation and that the subsequent correspondence and apology felt impersonal and appeared to him to be AI-generated.
He also questioned what might have happened to a more vulnerable person without a phone. His compensation request, he said, had focused solely on potential lost earnings, which were difficult to calculate, while the council's reply had not addressed the distress or what he described as unlawful confinement.
A council spokesperson said the authority "takes incidents like this very seriously" and added: "We apologise for the experience and acknowledge how frustrating it must have been."
The council said staff must check both the interior of the building and each cubicle before locking public restrooms. It has reviewed the instructions for those checks and sent them again to operational staff.
For council-related emergencies outside office hours, the authority said callers can use 01843 577000 and will be directed to the appropriate service.
Thanet's restroom improvement program
Thanet District Council manages 27 public restrooms. In December 2023, it proposed spending £1.25 million on an initial round of improvements, describing the work as the beginning of a longer-term program whose later stages would depend on further funding.
In January 2025, the council's Cabinet approved the third and final phase of its Public Toilets Refurbishment and Renewal Project. That phase provided for repairs and refurbishment at 16 public facilities, with a provisional budget of £400,000. The spending remained conditional on Full Council approval of the 2025/26 budget.
The wider pressures on public restrooms were highlighted in July 2024 by the British Toilet Association, which described a national crisis. It noted that UK councils have no legal duty to provide the facilities and cited a 2019 Royal Society for Public Health report estimating that about 700 publicly owned restroom buildings had closed across the UK since 2010.
Raymond Martin, the association's managing director, said in July 2024 that running a standard public restroom costs £5,000 to £8,000.
