THIS Easter Bank Holiday, me and my family visited York, as I do most years, but this time my visit was ruined by your city council’s inconsistent policy on public toilets.

In some toilets you are charged 40 pence per person per visit (the average is 20p at English local authorities) and in others it costs you nothing (all run by the same council).

One of the free toilets near the market was closed and relocated a few yards down another street and is now charging. Furthermore, I have a disability (I do not need or use a dial key as I can use ordinary toilets) which means that I need to visit the toilet more frequently than the norm.

On this visit to the city, I needed five visits (three of which were in charging toilets) so that was £1.20 I had to fork out, plus my family had to pay more. That was in addition to the rip-off car parking charges of £7.20 at Gillygate car park for four hours.

I am convinced City of York Council must be making excessive profits out of visitors and is particularly taxing vulnerable sick and disabled visitors which other councils could not get away with.

Certainly my family are thinking twice about visiting York in the future.

Robert Hopkins, Gaythorne Avenue, Preston, Lancashire.

• John Goodyear, assistant director in communities and neighbourhoods at City of York Council, said: “The council’s policy on charging is consistent in that customers are only charged at attended facilities.

“The cost of 40p is based on recovering the cost of the attendants. Comparing local authorities is not ideal as some may choose to subsidise certain services and not others.

“The new facility in Silver Street was opened in place of the old facility in Parliament Street, as this was in poor condition and did not meet the needs of all users, with male users having to use stairs to access the facility.

“The Silver Street facility has actually increased our service to disabled users as it contains a changing place facility for disabled users and their carers, to use free of charge.”