FURTHER to the Toiletgate scandal of closed city toilets while our Green/Labour coalition council focus on purchasing 100 additional, alleged winter demand, cycle hangars at £500,000.

Perhaps our council could produce a free colour map of which public conveniences are open around the city and which are closed, in order that residents and visitors can plan their outings accordingly.

A scrappy list on the council website with various excuses for closure is meaningless to visitors and tourists who don't know Brighton and Hove.

Furthermore this is disability discrimination as not all disabilities are visible. There are a growing number of youngsters with coeliac disease and diabetes these days who need clean and dignified facilities to facilitate normal life.

In fact there is no reason money cannot be taken out of the Active Travel fund to reopen and refurbish our toilets since no one will be active or otherwise travelling very far without public toilets available and this also has a negative impact on the city's economy as owner of Pavilion Gardens Cafe David Sewell pointed out (The Argus, October 28).

I would urge everyone to lobby both the council and their local MP on this issue as our city cannot afford to lose any public toilets, particularly as a main tourist resort, and having previously lost around 50 per cent of city public toilets only a few years ago. In fact we need staffed 24-hour WCs as well to facilitate the "City of Sanctuary" tent city residents invited here by our council.

And no, it is not good enough to tell the public to use the private facilities of restaurants and cafes to the glares of owners and customers alike.

What a shabby and humiliating welcome to anyone visiting our city that they can't even expect to find the absolute basic municipal facilities necessary for human dignity when and where they need them. And in the 21st century too.

As for antisocial issues, what is more antisocial than forcing desperate people to do their business in the open air in alleys, behind bins, and dare I say it, cycle hangars, and having the city smell even worse than it does?

Laura King

Friends of Brighton and Hove Citizens' Action Group