SIR — As an OAP, I enjoy the occasional day out in the winter months.

As my local coach company was offering a tour of the Somerset and Devon coast, I decided I'd part with some of my savings to go along.

In the early afternoon, the coach pulled up on Minehead seafront that we might stretch our legs and, for those of us that needed to, make a call of nature.

The signs along the front clearly stated that there were public conveniences available but after quite a walk, you can imagine my dismay to find them locked.

I soon discovered from a helpful shopkeeper nearby that they had been closed all winter and he asked that I complain to the council. He said he was forever being asked by people such as myself where the nearest usable lavatories were.

I would have thought that for a town as prestigious as Minehead, that has year-round visitors, public conveniences during the hours of daylight would have been its first priority.

Please don't tell me that your council's budget doesn't stretch to even the most basic humanitarian facilities. Where does this put us in the order of third world countries?

Dennis Harding,

Painswick,

Near Stroud.