THE work to clean up the area at a notorious sex-stop spot is long overdue.

For years it has been known that the layby on the A40 near Forest Hill attracted “men who liked to socialise with other men” as one police force once famously dubbed such activity.

Traditionally the toilets at the A40 were the problem.

Indeed it has long been rumoured, but never able to be fully proved so it could be published, that one international superstar had twice been apprehended there by police for gross indecency.

In recent times men have moved to performing sex acts in the undergrowth on neighbouring land.

Now the police, county council and managers of the Shotover Estate have got together to clean the place up and make it more secure in the hope it will be less of an attractive option.

Police also need to have a visible presence there so that the toilets are also returned to the use for which they were originally intended.

This is not a judgement of morality about gay sex.

It is about the morality of innocent members of the public being confronted with sexual behaviour.

It is time to clean up the layby properly, once and for all.