MERCURY readers have accused Sedgemoor District Council of taking the pee after it closed the toilets at Bridgwater coach station.

Visitors have been logging onto our website, bridgwatermercury.co.uk, in their droves to vent their fury after the conveniences at the Eastover building were shut for good on Thursday.

Here is a selection of your comments: Mouse 23 wrote: “Some people suffer Irritable Bowel Syndrome; they don’t have the time to go marching to the other side of the town to find the loo.”

JulietBravo wrote: “First the booking office now the toilets; are they going to close the bus station as well?”

And D1040 added: “Are not the ones issuing the council tax taking the wee wee a little bit - just what do we get for our council tax now?”

Tim Mander, Sedgemoor District Council’s property manager, said the authority was giving up responsibility for all its public loos to cut costs, but Bridgwater Town Council has taken on the the Penel Orlieu, Blake Gardens, and Taunton Road conveniences in Bridgwater.

Mr Mander said the council was in discussions with coach operators about potentially re-opening the coach station toilets in the coming months.

And he dismissed rumours the coach station, which the council owns and leases to First bus company, could close completely, adding there were plans in the pipeline to improve the facilities there, which include extending the opening hours of the waiting room.

First said it understood the concerns over the closure of the toilets but could not take on the cost of managing them due to the ‘difficult trading environment’.