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The team responsible for creating a "welcoming, safe, clean and attractive" city centre in Sunderland have issued a plea over an increase in people "defecating and urinating in public".

Sunderland Business Improvement District (BID) have warned that treating the streets as a toilet is "absolutely unacceptable" and "will not be tolerated".

In a Facebook post the Sunderland BID team wrote: “Disappointingly we’ve seen an increase in people thinking it is absolutely acceptable to defecate or urinate in public in our city centre. This will not be tolerated!

“Anyone who observes this behaviour should report it to Northumbria Police on 101. It is a Public Order offence at minimum and individuals will be charged!

“Help us keep our city centre clean.”

They later said the post was in response to a "very specific incident" in the city centre on Wednesday, August 14.

A spokesperson for Sunderland BID said: "The BID's post was as a result of a very specific incident which occurred yesterday.

"The BID, the council and a whole host of other organisations are working together to make Sunderland a cleaner, safer place to visit so this kind of behaviour is completely unacceptable.

"We have spent a lot of time and effort on cleaning up the city centre and this is something nobody should have to deal with, which is why we would ask everyone to be vigilant and to report any incidents of this nature to the BID.

"There are clearly some wider, underlying issues as to why people feel the need to behave in this way and this is also something we need to address by all working together to stop this, along with all other kinds of anti social behaviour."

One person suggested the problem may lie in the fact that the city centre's public toilets are closed after 7pm and the licensing laws "often dictating that people under the age of 18 are not allowed on the premises after 9pm".

But Sunderland BID replied: "Unfortunately this is not happening after 7pm and nor is it children."