In lieu of a loo, an itty bitty IT

I don't want to cause unnecessary alarm, but from the Worthington Herald comes this news...

Worthing Borough Council are closing the public toilets, and the space will become a new IT computer suite in the library.

The improvements will take place over the next few months after the Borough Council agreed the library, in Mulberry Lane, needed the extra space.

The toilets will close from August 4.

"This is part of an ongoing programme of improvements: refurbishment and re-shelving of the children's library in the autumn," said Mike Coleman, Deputy Leader of West Sussex County Council, who has responsibility for Libraries.

He said: "We are also redecorating and carrying out minor improvements in the adult library. We expect to finish the work in the autumn, and the Library will stay open while the IT suite is being built."

For anyone feeling inconvenienced, the nearest available public toilets are those situated at the Sea Lane Cafe.

Sounds harmless enough, right? Usual story: local library finally gets priorities straight, local pub comes to the rescue, right? Not quite. In a related story from the Goring News...

Stuck in the loo
On Friday evening a lady got suck in the ladies at the Sea Lane Cafe. The man who locks up gave the traditional shout, being too discrete to look inside, and not hearing any reply closed the gates. So there was the trapped lady, clutching the bars like a scene from a horror movie crying "I'm not a celebrity, but get me out of here!". We found the man with the key who luckily had not yet gone home for the night.

I think my library visits will be quite short next time I'm in Worthing! And if that's not enough...

Late night fracas at Sea Lane Cafe
Peter Attwood, the head chef and part owner of the Sea Lane Cafe in Goring turned out on Friday night accompanied by a friend, because there was a rowdy party near the Cafe where there has recently been a lot of vandalism. Unfortunately he brought a baseball bat, and one of the kids apparently says he got hit. So Peter was taken off to the police station and was released after a couple of hours with a caution for carrying an offensive weapon, and now has a criminal record. The police stayed at the cafe until the party had disbursed and there were no other arrests. It seems that bottles and beer cans are not counted as offensive weapons, and apparently there is nothing wrong with leaving broken glass all over the place.

Eek!



(For the record, my headline is much better than the Worthing Herald headline: "Goring library's information techno-loo-gy boost." C'mon Worthing Herald, we deserve better. The Sea Lane motto, on the other hand--"Open 8 days. Nine-day license applied for"--is spot on.)