Clubbers caught short are queuing up to use an alleyway as a makeshift toilet.

Maidstone’s Street Pastors regularly witness dozens of people of both sexes using the alley next to the Switch Cafe in the lower High Street as a urinal.

The pastors base themselves at the cafe over the weekend when they patrol the town centre – and also see revellers asking to use the toilet inside the cafe.

Pastors now have to lock and police the alley gate.

Maidstone council has confirmed the latest idea for funding a women's toilet during the evenings on weekends is not viable.

In their monthly report, the pastors said: "From before the start of the night we had people banging on the door of the Switch Cafe asking to use the toilet.

"When this failed they were going down the alley to urinate. This was both men and women.

"We tried to keep close control of the gate but the moment it is opened clubbers flock in to use the alley as a latrine."

They also reported witnessing a homeless woman being verbally abused for using an alleyway as a toilet.

They said: "We prayed for her self-esteem and for Maidstone council to realise that women have to go to the toilet too."

Maidstone's Town Centre Management (TCM) has been pushing for a women's toilet on Friday and Saturday nights for more than a year.

There is already a temporary urinal stationed in the High Street, but the cost of a women's cubicle has been estimated at around £40,000.

At a recent TCM meeting, chairman Paul Alcock put to the council's community partnerships manager, Sarah Robson, that the authority could use money from street littering fines to fund a toilet.

But the council said this week the amount raised was insufficient.