ADAM McCartney's letter on the vile state of public toilets in Acomb’s once-smart shopping centre touched a raw nerve.

You don’t have to be rich to be clean and tidy. When I was at school, one important subject was domestic science. All the girls were taught how to look after a home, cook, clean and generally show the coming generation how to behave. When I see the dreadfully neglected state of toilets in our towns and cities, I wonder why on earth we allow these to go unchallenged.

I make sure there is a department store close by when needing a toilet as these are usually clean. Having travelled in Germany, France and Japan, I know standards of public toilets can be very high, where have we gone wrong?

Nowadays girls put everything – careers, fashion and leisure pursuits – before housekeeping, presumably depending on linking up with a man who is emasculated or brain-washed enough into taking on the lion's share of the housework, or being content to live in squalor. Feminists have a great deal to answer for, none of it good.

Heather Causnett Escrick Park Gardens, Escrick, York.