Public toilets in Oxford have been condemned as a disgrace.

City councillors and officers went on a "toilet tour" around the city a week ago when they came across 60 used syringes, lack of disabled access, chipped and peeling paint, broken windows, lack of light and air and the stink of cheap disinfectant.

Jackie Gray, one of the members of the health and environment committee, told the city council meeting yesterday: "Sixty used syringes were found in one of the toilets on the morning of our visit to all six in the city centre.

"That all the toilets are regularly used for shooting up was just one of many unpalatable facts faced by those members who went on the toilet tour." She added that four of the toilets were underground and approached by steps and the one in Castle Street is accessible but was closed at the time for refurbishment.

Mrs Gray, who pointed out that disabled people in wheelchairs cannot go down steps, said: "The situation they are faced with is a total disgrace and the city council should be deeply ashamed of it."

Toilets designated for the use of disabled people are always kept locked and some people have keys, but those who do not, need to get one from one of the four attendants who may be elsewhere at the time.

She said: "All these toilets are way past their sell by date and to tinker about with relatively small sums of money for so-called refurbishment seems to me a waste of time and public money."

Susanna Pressel, the chairman of the committee, told the meeting that the toilets in Castle Street, near the Westgate shopping centre, were reopening this week and they had made many decisions on all the toilets over the last few weeks. She said: "The ones by the Westgate are now in an excellent state of repair. They are at ground level which people will enjoy using."

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