A town can have all the public art projects and interactive lighting displays it likes, but it will count for nothing if the essentials aren’t there.

Good public toilets are what people want, according to the results of Maidstone council’s Image of Maidstone survey.

But 41 per cent of respondents to the survey rated the borough’s public loos as “poor”.

This week, back-bench councillors began their own investigation into the state of the town’s conveniences.

Cllrs Annabelle Blackmore (Con), Ian Chittenden (Lib Dem), Fay Gooch (Ind) and Michael Yates (Con), all members of the environment and leisure scrutiny committee, began their tour at Lockmeadow.

But it did not get off to the best start, when they failed to find the toilets in the absence of helpful signs to point the way.

When the toilets were finally hunted down, the inspection team was reasonably impressed with the Ladies, discovering only minor defects - a light out, three plugs missing and only one mirror.

The Gents was a different matter, with Cllr Gouch remarking: “Really this is Third World.”

What upset them was the cleanliness, or lack of it - not of the basins or lavatory pans, which were pretty good - but of the walls and ceilings and other surfaces which quite clearly received little attention.

Cllr Chittenden said: “The functions are being maintained, but it needs an all-round good clean.”

Cllr Yates, a former environment manager with a paper mill in Chartham, brought his specialist knowledge to bear, pointing out that the loos had been badly designed. He said: “The join between floor and walls should be curved so that you can mop up it, not straight to collect the dirt.”

However, Lockmeadow was attractive compared with the loos in the temporary buildings in Palace Avenue. A lid on the seat of a cubicle in the Ladies was so dirty that no one wanted to touch it. There was graffiti scratched on a wall, and no seat in the disabled cubicle nor in the Gents, and no waste bin.

“This is not functional,” declared Cllr Chittenden, while Mr Doll phoned in to see if the missing seats had been reported - they had.

On to Fairmeadow, where the councillors were impressed with the building, its stone floors and heavy fittings. Cllr Chittenden observed: “A little redecoration and this could look really nice.”

But some aspects still had councillors scratching their heads. A separate baby change room had no receptacle for soiled nappies and a door too narrow for a double buggy.

They were also uncertain why the toilets were closed on Sundays from November to March, with one councillor observing that people tended to need the loo more often in the colder winter weather.

Cllr Blackmore said: ”If we want to attract tourists and shoppers to Maidstone, good clean toilets are essential.”

Cllr Yates agreed: “If we want to draw people in, then every car park should have a public toilet in good condition.”

The results of their inspection will reported to the next meeting of the scrutiny committee, with members quizzing the officers responsible for the service before making recommendations for improvement.