Alleyways across Wisbech have become nothing more than public toilets and action is needed to crackdown on the culprits.

Councillor David Broker said trying to promote Wisbech was a waste of time when visitors were greeted with unwelcoming alleyways like Ghost Passage.

He said: “We try to encourage people into the town only for them to discover every passageway and alleyway is being used as a public toilet, it is not the image we want to promote. It is a disgusting state of affairs.”

Councillor David Oliver, Portfolio holder, told Monday’s meeting of Fenland’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee that one of the only ways to deal with the problem was to have the alleyways gated but he said that causes other problems.

“We have gated one alleyway in Union Street and that has solved the problems there, but all it has done is move it elsewhere. Blocking these passageways also causes problems for people wanting to get from a to b.

“The issue has been highlighted by the community safety partnership but it is difficult to come up with a plan to solve the problem.”

Councillor Kit Owen said he had seen first had the problems after being part of a fact finding party that had visited the alleyways at “stupid o’clock” one night.

He pointed out that Ghost Passage had previously been subject to a six-months’ gating order which had worked, but at the end of the six months it had been re-opened only for the old problems to come back.