We were astonished Brighton and Hove City Council claims there has been no request from local residents for adequate toilet facilities for children in Queen's Park (June 8).

Last September, we sent a letter to Councillor Mike Middleton, lead councillor for parks and open spaces, requesting better toilet provision for children in the park.

The letter was signed by 30 local parents. We sent copies to the six councillors representing Hanover and Queens Park.

Our letter raised serious concerns about children and parents being trapped inside the automatic toilet.

We have personal experience of this and know of several other occasions on which people have been trapped and the fire brigade has had to be called.

As Jane Launchbury said, the toilet is so dirty, so far away from the play park, so often out of order and so impractical for parents with babies and toddlers it is rarely used by families visiting the park.

Now, because of the council's apparent lack of concern, we face another summer during which all the areas of planting in the park will be used as unofficial toilets. This is unacceptable.

Coun Middleton did not reply to our letter but we did receive a response from the leader of the council, Ken Bodfish.

Incredibly, Councillor Bodfish described the automatic toilets that have sprung up all over Brighton and Hove as "hygienic to use".

He informed us the council's public toilet strategy did not include the provision of extra toilets in Queen's Park. He did promise that a council officer would contact us but she did not.

Perhaps Coun Bodfish could find time to visit Queen's Park and hear first-hand from parents and children how urgently it needs adequate, clean, free and safe toilet facilities for the many hundreds of children who play there every year.

-Dani Ahrens and Allie Rogers, Southampton Street, Brighton