“We deserve better”: Lincoln businessman petitions for gates at ‘pee alley’

A Lincoln business owner says he “deserves better” from the council after years of anti-social behaviour plagued an alleyway that his snooker club can be found on, and now he wants to take matters into his own hands.

Phillip Cross has been the owner of Lincoln Snooker Club at St Peter At Arches for around two years, but anti-social behaviour on the alleyway that his business is located has been rife for long before then.

The Lincolnite first wrote about these issues when we went to meet Phillip in November 2019, and since then he has been calling for change at the anti-social behaviour hotspot.

St Peter At Arches has hit the headlines recently. Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Phillip urged the council to gate off the alleyway in July 2020 as well, when he said he’d seen people use it to defecate, urinate, take drugs and have sex.

These problems have not gone away, and even after lockdown restrictions were being lifted in April 2021, people were being caught on CCTV using the alley as a toilet, right outside the front door of Phillip’s business.

Phillip installed an access control gate in the area immediately outside his club in July 2020.

The alleyway eventually gained an unfortunate nickname of ‘pee alley‘ after yet more incidents were caught on camera during the May bank holiday weekend.

He has called for action from City of Lincoln Council, and set up a petition to have the alleyway gated overnight to stop people using it as a toilet.

A local business owner has said the activity down ‘pee alley’ must stop. | Photo: Phillip Cross

At the time of reporting, the petition stands at 206 signatures and continues to rise as more and more incidents are reported.

The businesses’ CCTV cameras captured more people urinating on the alley. | Photo: Phillip Cross

Francesca Bell, public protection, anti-social behaviour and licensing service manager at City of Lincoln Council said: “We are aware that the owner of Lincoln Snooker Club has begun a petition calling on us to gate this passageway off.

“However, this is something we would only ever do as an absolute last resort as the passageway is a thoroughfare and is used by businesses other than the snooker club.

“When the proposal for the PSPO currently in effect on St Peters Passage was put before our members there was a view that they would not be in favour of gating any further passages.”