A petition has been launched to reopen a block of public toilets in Abergavenny town centre that have been closed for more than two years.

The toilets on White Horse Lane just off Frogmore Street at the back of Cibi Walk shopping centre were closed in 2018 by Abergavenny Town Council after they were vandalised and the pipework broken.

The Town Council, who currently fund the cleaning in the town’s three public toilets, said at the time they were waiting for Monmouthshire Council to sort out the repairs.

With the toilets remaining shut, a local resident has taken action by launching a petition to reopen them.

This comes after an elderly woman suffered a mishap in the town centre having not been able to access a public toilet.

Urging people to sign, petition sponsor Sarah Griffiths said: “Toilets should be open because more people will suffer, so we need to get onto MCC as more people WILL suffer.”

The petition has so far been signed by 522 people and if successful will be sent to Monmouthshire County Council.

One man posted that he had seen “several elderly people” in distress owing to being unable to use the toilets, plus children and a pregnant woman.

But one man posted: “It will never open again, because there is too much damage done in there.

“There is roughly 30 grand of damage. I know Cibi Walk wanted to buy it but it would cost too much to put right.”

One woman posted: “We need toilets at this end of town. We want visitors to feel welcome to return and a lack of toilets could well prevent this.”

A town council spokeswoman said the county council owned the White Horse Lane toliet block and they were unaware of any decision or action having been taken yet.

She said: “We offered to part-fund the repairs, but that wasn’t taken up.

“And with these toilets still being shut, we’ve been urging the county council to take the blue and white direction signs down, but without success to date.”

She said the town was well equipped with public toilets elsewhere, with one in the Castle Street car park, one in the Brewery Yard at the back of the market hall, plus one at the bus station, while there were also toilets in the town hall library and Morrisons had toilets for customers.