Sir – I returned home to Oxford by long-distance coach recently. At the public lavatories at the coach station I met several others who had been on the same coach.

It was very sad to hear their complaints: they thought that Oxford was supposed to be a beautiful place, but these public lavatories were a “disgrace”: grubby and uncared for; the actual lavatories so low that one almost fell over backwards trying to reach them; with horrible pieces of seats which looked far from clean between the pieces; with no ‘soap’ in the dispensers; with totally inadequate ventilation. I felt ashamed.

It is hard to believe that the local authority talks of closing public lavatories. If they were needed all those years ago, when first installed, they are needed far more nowadays, when so many more people come to the city or live in it: and they need to be of a good standard.

Gwen Hampshire, Oxford