Retired teacher Cornelius McAfee – the convenience in City Road was the only one saying it was closed in lights

EVERY single one of Islington’s automated public toilets are still out of action two months after a charity for older people warned the council it left the vulnerable ­languishing at home.

At the end of October last year Cornelius McAfee, a 69-year-old retired teacher from Archway, discovered that all eight of the lavatories listed on Islington’s ­website were closed after going out on a “toilet tour” for Age UK.

After the charity raised its concerns, Islington adjusted the total number of toilets listed on their website as available to six – deciding to permanently close two – and insisted the others have been open since then.

But on a new tour carried out on Tuesday, Mr McAfee found all the same toilets still out of service.

Finsbury Park

“I am angry. It’s so dishonest to say you’ve got these five toilets – they have to work!” said Mr McAfee, who once worked at Pentonville Prison.

“I think it’s a very, very big issue. In Islington, Age Concern have interviewed people and they find people won’t go out if there are no toilets. I’ve got a friend who won’t go out. He’s had the same operation as me. And he feels the radiotherapy has led to an urgency and he doesn’t want to take the risk of soiling himself. So, there are lots of old people who are held constrained by the ‘loo leash’.”

Mr McAfee described how until he developed prostate cancer around 10 years ago, he lived a very active life that included international cycling holidays every year, but after an operation and rounds of radiotherapy, “when I need to use the lavatory, I need to use the laboratory [right now],” he said – although he refuses to let it stop him going out.

Islington’s five automated toilets are based in Finsbury Park, Holloway Road, Highbury Crescent, Highbury Fields and City Road. The toilets at Islington Green and Newington Green have been closed while the serviced toilet in Chapel Market was open.

Four out of five of the automated loos had their lights off with no indication they were closed, and Mr McAfee lost 20p on each of them while his radar key – used to open public loos – also failed to work.

Holloway Road

Yesterday Islington apologised for the lack of toilets and said they plan to invest £1 million into replacing them over the next two years, alongside launching an online scheme called Toilets4­London in Islington to encourage businesses to allow the public to use their loos.

They said a company named Hi-Tec Washrooms manage their automated loos, at a cost of £59,200 last year, and “conduct daily checks” before issuing Islington’s facilities management team with a weekly report.

Meanwhile, debate continues to rage about the closure of Islington’s ­Victorian loos, with the Clerkenwell Green ­­Preservation Society arguing the council should reopen a historic toilet in the area built by the ­pioneer of public lavatories, George Jennings.

Launching their London Loos campaign a year ago, calling for better provision of public toilets, Age UK’s John McGeachy said: “The reason Age UK London campaigns on this is because one in five people say they don’t go out as much as they would like to because of a lack of public toilets – we were concerned about how this was impacting socialised isolation.

Highbury Crescent

“Unfortunately the long-term decline in the number of public toilets has accelerated in recent years and the situation in London and elsewhere is much more than just an inconvenience.

“London’s lack of toilets is a serious public health concern and it is already disadvantaged groups of Londoners such as those with health conditions requiring more frequent visits to the toilet that are most affected.”

According to a study by Age UK London, Islington was in the bottom third of the 32 London boroughs for toilet provision.

An Islington Council press officer said: “Our existing automated public toilets are old, and need replacing.

Highbury Fields

“We’re working hard to keep them in service but they suffer from issues including anti-social behaviour, and a lack of replacement parts, which makes this hard. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience we know this causes.

“We’re investing more than £1million over the next two years on good accessible public toilets, with £200,000 of Changing Places funding, to greatly improve Islington’s public toilets.

“We’re also launching a new campaign next week with local businesses to encourage more to sign up to the Toilets4London app, which offers toilets for people out and about.”