TOILETS are vital, but selfish people give public ones less respect than their own.

Councils struggle with cut budgets, and wilfully messed-up public loos are unfair on all of us – including the council employees (and supermarket staff) left to clean up.

Witness “Toilet Locked” notices and more disabled/accessible loos becoming radar keyaccessible only, with “Please remember to lock the door when you leave” notices.

Edging between a toilet bowl and around a small cubicle’s door is irritating, but it is no excuse for abusing the “Not all disabilities are visible” concept.

I’ve heard able-bodied (mainly women) people openly boast “I prefer the disabled loo. It’s nicer than ours”, and I have found it both unpleasant and inconvenient as I have stomach and bowel problems to enter a door-open cubicle only to be delayed by a man using it as a urinal - while actual ones stand unused.

To paraphrase a well-known saying: consideration isn’t just for Christmas - it’s for life.

Steve Lawson, Tow Law