Voyeurism and criminal activities: Why Barnstaple Bus Station can’t reopen just yet

There have been calls to reopen Barnstaple Bus Station waiting room and toilets after a closure of more than three years, but North Devon Council says in their current state they pose a real threat to the safety of people using them.

The Gazette was invited to a tour of the building to see its current state and hear about some of the problems with antisocial behaviour, which included disturbing accounts of sexual voyeurism in some of the toilet cubicles.

The building closed to the public during lockdown and has never reopened, while the onsite café folded. The council says the current layout and lack of onsite supervision led to anti-social behaviour, criminal activity and incidents of mental and physical abuse, meaning it was just too unsafe to reopen.

There are hopes it might reopen in future after refurbishment as a bus station community hub, with a project proposed by Barnstaple Town Council, which would include toilets, a café, waiting area and other community facilities.

Helen Bond, property manager at North Devon Council (NDC), which operates the building, said the ground floor layout really needed to be reconfigured and refurbished before it could be brought back into use.

She said: “I think the most optimistic opportunity for that would be for the town council or another body to take this on as some sort of bus station community hub, giving public access and additional support over and above it just being a waiting room and café area/toilets; it just needs to be managed by someone who is on site.

“I have had one expression of interest in respect of the café, but the way things are, we can’t put a commercial business in charge of the building - it’s not fair to them running a business there when it’s still not safe for users or that business.

“We are in early discussions with the town council and we are very supportive of their proposals. They are currently I believe in the process of working to get funding in order to carry on with the project and we just need to support them wherever we can in that delivery.”

The upper floor is still used as rest facilities for the bus and coach companies, but the ground floor could not open without someone on site.

The toilet facilities are also at the end of their lifespan, as well as being down a corridor away from the main area, which had become a real safety issue while they were open.

Helen said: “The public toilet facilities are really at end of life and need a complete refurbishment. Refurbishing them in their current location doesn’t actually assist with any of the problems we have with anti-social behaviour and is actually likely to increase it rather than improve it and for that reason we have had to keep the facilities closed.

“For example, metal plates had been fixed to the sides of the cubicles and that’s because people were actually drilling holes in the sides of the cubicles to spy on other users.

“They are also tucked right down the end of a very long corridor and incidents occurred within the cubicles and facilities that were not known to the other public users of the building, which is a real safety issue.

“Incidents have occurred in the past even when the café has been in occupation. Known offenders or repeat offenders have been trying to access the building and it’s really hard to control that with the current configuration, which is why we had to close it for public safety.”