WOMEN-ONLY charges in two York city centre public toilets have outraged both residents and visitors.

The City of York Council-run facilities in Parliament Street and in Coppergate charge 10p to use a cubicle, yet men use both urinals and cubicles free.

Lin Hill, 37, of Ross-on-Wye, told the Evening Press: "I think it's outrageous, and clear sex discrimination. York is a lovely city apart from that."

Audrey Greaves, from York, thought the female-only charges were unfair: "I think nobody should begrudge the 10p if the toilets were clean, tidy and well looked after, but they rarely are. It's an issue of safety and cleanliness.

"The cubicles should be taken down in the men's toilets."

Jackie Scott, 52, of York, was spared paying the charge as somebody had left the door open.

She said: "There seems to be a lot of effective rebellion against the charges - which is a good thing."

A City of York Council spokeswoman said today: "With regard to the Parliament Street loos, the ladies' toilets are attended for six hours a day and are constantly cleaned during that period - there is a small charge for that service. The gents' loos did have pay locks on them, but they were damaged by vandalism on so many occasions that they were removed."

The Parliament Street and Coppergate toilets also had cleanliness problems.

Our reporters visited city centre public conveniences and awarded marks out of five, as follows:

Parliament Street: The women's toilets had grimy half-swept floors and empty soap dispensers, and clearly annoyed visitors (3/5). The men's were quite dark and smelly, but the cubicles and urinal were quite clean, with no graffiti or evidence of drug use (3/5).

Coppergate: The women's had a grimy appearance, but a fresh smell (3/5). The men's were generally clean and rubbish and graffiti free (3/5).

Exhibition Square: The female toilets had 10p charge signs on the doors, but no money box; dirt was gathering on the floor underneath the toilets and sinks, and one cubicle was severely blocked (2/5). One cubicle in the men's had the toilet roll holder ripped off the wall, a cider bottle was in the urinal, and they stank (2/5).

Nunnery Lane: The women's toilets had large piles of leaves and rubbish outside, an empty, broken soap dispenser hanging off the wall and a toilet bowl littered with a syringe packet and swabs (2/5). In the men's, the main urinal was fine and they smelt quite fresh but the cubicles had rubbish in them (not drug related) and extreme sexually explicit graffiti (2.5/5).

Tanner Row: Toilets for women had a broken toilet roll dispenser, with cigarette burns engraved into the plastic (2/5). The men's urinal was fine, but the cubicle had no lock, was full of rubbish, including syringe and swab wrappers, and graffiti was on the back of the door (2.5/5).

Museum Gardens: The closed facilities are now a stench-ridden dumping ground, littered with syringe wrappers, food debris, underwear, condoms and dirty clothes - rated because of the surrounding area (0/5).

St George's Field car park: The toilets are shut until the end of March.

Updated: 10:48 Friday, March 07, 2003