I WAS extremely angry to read in the Oxford Mail that, when the city council met to discuss the closure of our public toilets, before they got around to discuss such an important issue, they had to watch a video which went on for so long that one member who had intended to vote against the closure had to leave before the voting because she had to relieve the babysitter.

Consequently, when the counted votes were ‘neck and neck’, Mary Clarkson had to make a ‘casting vote’ – and voted for the closures.

To me, whoever made the agenda had their priorities wrong. And the showing of the video caused the vote to be undemocratic.

We need more public toilets all over Oxford, not fewer. Nor do we need luxury ones to impress the tourists (they don’t pay our council taxes).

All we need is a place to perform a basic bodily function.

However, some people do not have as much control over their bowels and bladders as others.

There are hundreds of people – old and young – who suffer from such things as Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome or colitis.

If there is not a lavatory nearby which they can get to quickly, they have great difficulty.

The same applies to women going through the menopause.

There are little toddlers being potty-trained, pregnant women needing to get to a toilet quickly, and elderly people too.

It is humiliating and degrading for people with these problems not to have access to a nearby public toilet and there are already queues in shops that have them.

It is madness to rely on them to replace the public toilets that are to be closed. Surely public toilets are an essential part of civilisation?

The city council should look again at how to save money. It should stop bothering about such things as town-twinning and all the cost of holding late-night council meetings that mean councillors have to spend the night in expensive hotels. These are not vital, while providing enough public toilets is.

When Mary Clarkson slept out in St Clement’s Churchyard on Saturday, to help raise awareness for the homeless, I hope she realised that her casting vote was also a blow to those who live and sleep on the streets because, for many of them, public toilets are the places which they can use to have a ‘wash and brush up’ to try and keep themselves clean.

Fortunately for her, no doubt, St Clement’s Church toilets were open for the occasion.

PAMELA WEBBER, Bullingdon Road, Oxford