FED-UP residents living near run-down public toilets in Jaywick have backed plans to rip them down.

A campaign was launched last week to save the WCs in Garden Road.

But local councillors have backed the closure plans and say they have been promised new replacement superloos.

Kevin Watson said: “We have spoken to the residents who live opposite the toilets. They want them to go because they have so many problems with drugs and kids get on the roof and throw tiles about.

“The youngsters go around the back and drink and throw cans into the gardens of the people living in Golf Green Road behind the toilets, so they have had enough too.”

Mr Watson also says the Tendring Council-run block has been targeted by arsonists and vandals.

“They were probably put up in the Forties or Fifties,” he said.

“They have been set alight and vandalised, and the council has done a survey and they are subsiding and falling apart.

“We had a meeting last Wednesday morning with chief executive Ian Davidson about what is going on and have come to the conclusion that the toilets have got to go because of the state they are in.

Mr Watson says the toilets are in the wrong place for people using the beach.

“Young children have to cross the road to get to them,” he said.

“You can’t have children crossing that road. It’s a death trap when cars come around that corner.”

He says Tendring Council has earmarked a site at the end of the promenade near the golf club and promised new hi-tech toilets.

“There will definitely be a replacement when the old ones go,” he said.

“The best place is just off the beach. It will be brilliant for holiday-makers and the people who live there.

“Now Jaywick is up and coming we get a lot of people down here in the summer – it’s a fantastic place.”