WITH days to go before the start of the Abergavenny Food Festival a visitor to the area says he's been put off ever visiting the town again after being faced with the "worst" toilets he'd ever seen.

Austin Jenkins, 66, is from East Essex and regularly visits his mother in Tredegar. He usually spends the day in Abergavenny, Hereford or Monmouth while he's in Gwent.

On Monday morning Mr Jenkins and his wife arrived in Abergavenny at around 7.15am and used the Bus Station toilets.

"I have never been so disgusted in all my life. They were filthy, beyond disgusting.

"It seemed as though someone had thrown a bucket of water all over the floor and put the 'slippery surface' signs up. The toilets were encrusted in faeces and the smell was unbearable.

"My wife Anne said the womens' toilets weren't quite as bad but not at all pleasant."

Mr Jenkins said during his last visit he contacted Monmouthshire County Council to report the state of the toilets.

"This time I couldn't believe they were worse, they are an embarrassment to the town and people.

"It's put us off coming again. I worked away in the Middle East for quite some time and you would not see that out there, ever. It's an insult to people and tourists," he added.

The condition of toilets in Abergavenny has been a problem for some time. Town councillors have campaigned to get the cleaned up.

Just this month the local authority announced that it was to close many of the toilets all over the county in a bid to save money.

The decision to close many public toilets in Monmouthshire in an effort to save £184,556 was also called in.

MCC said that 16 public toilets would either be closed or handed over to another organisation, reducing the cost of running public conveniences in the county from £330,194 to £145,638.

Any toilets not taken over by town or community councils will be closed on April 1 next year.

Members of the Town Council have objected to the plan because they feel there's been a lack of consultation.

In last week's Chronicle it was reported that Councillor Douglas Edwards (pictured) objected to the proposed closure of Whitehorse Lane toilets.

He suggested that the Castle Street toilets close instead and the money saved from that to go should into the up keep of the remaining toilets.

At the time the Chronicle went to Press no-one from Monmouthshire County Council was available for comment.