HOW dare John Tanner pose as the person who has saved public toilets, when it was he who suggested their closure in the first place.

Public toilets are a basic human right and we need more of them dotted around the city, not less.

The present ones were built because it was felt there was a basic need for them, otherwise they would not be there in the first place.

John Tanner reckons he’s solving the problem by getting city shops to make their toilets available to the public. If he had done his research for women’s toilets, he would know that there are already long queues in many of the stores that have them open to the public – which is traumatic for someone with a bowel problem.

If he had researched the needs of pregnant women, children being potty-trained, sufferers of irritable bowel syndrome or ulcerative colitis, and elderly people of both sexes, he would know that it is no good being in Cowley Road and knowing that the nearest toilets are available in Gloucester Green.

State-of-the-art toilets are a waste of money.

All that is needed are a toilet with a wash basin. And people would not mind paying 20p for their use.

If someone has a bowel problem and there is no toilet nearby, they dare not walk very far. Nor can they catch a bus or taxi home to get cleaned up.

It can be imagined how traumatic it would feel to be in that situation.

PAMELA WEBBER, Bullingdon Road, Oxford