PUBLIC toilets in York are plumbing the depths for quality and cleanliness on the verge of the new tourist season, an Evening Press investigation reveals today.

Reporters visiting six city centre public toilets found their overall quality was poor, with problems such as graphic sexual graffiti and obvious evidence of people using the toilets to inject drugs.

The toilets in the Museum Gardens were in the worst state - even though they were shut.

The doors were boarded up, the sign stating when they would reopen was two years out of date, and someone had scrawled "bloody useless York council" on the boards.

The area surrounding the toilets was filthy, with used condoms, syringe and swab wrappers, discarded clothing, including underwear, empty bottles and cans and what appeared to be human excrement.

Andy Hudson, City of York Council's assistant director of environmental protection and street services, said the Museum Garden toilets were shut until April, when the main tourist season starts.

Between April and September, the toilets and surrounding area are cleaned four times per day, while during the winter the surrounding area is cleaned thoroughly twice a week, he said.

Mr Hudson said: "It is not unusual for our cleaners to have to remove several bin bags of rubbish from the area. The area was cleaned this morning and two bags of rubbish were removed."

Mr Hudson said the council was thinking about turfing the area over, to cut down on abuse.

Across the city, toilets suffered from problems such as broken soap dispensers, lack of toilet rolls or no locks on cubicle doors.

A similar Evening Press investigation just under a year ago found the toilets to be in a similar state and prompted senior city councillors to pledge a clean-up.

Kay Hyde, of York Tourism Bureau, said the investigation's findings were "disappointing" but said significant improvements had been made over the last year. The bureau hoped extra council cash for conveniences this year would mean more improvements.

Mr Hudson said: "We are committed to improving the general standards of the city's public conveniences. £40,000 has been allocated in the 2003/04 budget to increase cleaning frequency and overall cleanliness of the loos. The new toilets at the Union Street Car Park are an example of the first class facilities that can be achieved."

The findings come only days after York narrowly missed out on being crowned the UK's tidiest city.

The city made the last 11 but was pipped by the eventual winner, Westminster.

Meanwhile, senior York councillors were today due to discuss proposals that could see environment services such as street and toilet cleaning delivered by one single organisation.

The plan is aimed saving money while also improving services and access for customers.

Updated: 11:42 Friday, March 07, 2003