TO most, public conveniences are facilities to be used. To a minority they are there to be abused.

Whether you find a toilet decent or disgusting depends on just how diligent the offenders have been.

Wanton damage in West Devon costs the borough council £5,000 a year.

What should be a daily cleaning regime maintaining premises to a spick and span standard can often be anything but. Instead, cleaners become entrenched in a gruelling battle against senseless sabotage.

Cleaning toilets is not a vocation and those that sign on for one of life's less appealing callings deserve our praise. Doing the job is enough — cleaning up after the disgusting excesses left by a persistent minority is way beyond the call of duty.

Conservative spokesman for West Devon and Torridge, Ian Liddell-Grainger recently wrote a letter to the Times complaining about the state of public toilets. The cleaning firm responsible for many of the conveniences in West Devon not un-naturally took umbrage — although the offending toilet was not in their area.

As a result, North Tawton-based Squires Cleaning Services challenged Mr Liddell-Grainger to spend a day with them and experience the problems first-hand. It was an invitation he gladly accepted which was why at 7.15am Mr Liddell-Grainger rolled up at Fairplace toilets, Okehampton, to help mop out the first venue of the day.

'It showed up the problems. I have learned the hard work the cleaning firm have to put up with seven days a week. These guys do a phenomenal job with no thanks whatsoever,' said Mr Liddell-Grainger.

'There are very unappealing things that go on in public conveniences. It is a terrible reality and not one that 99 per cent of people in West Devon see.

'It is something that a lot of us would wish to ignore — but you can't when you are cleaning every day.'

Mr Liddell-Grainger had praise for West Devon Borough Council which employs the cleaning firm. 'The council could easily shut the loos because there is no obligatory requirement to keep them open.'

The working itinerary with the cleaners took Mr Liddell-Grainger from Okehampton to Chagford, on to Tavistock, and outlying villages.

At the gents in Tavistock's Brook Street the toilet roll holder had been set alight. The wall was blackened and molten plastic had welded itself to the floor. The cost of repair is estimated at more than £2,000.

'I was disgusted. It was dangerous and irresponsible. What is the point of doing that? These people are costing the taxpayer a lot of money and causing a lot of hard work.

'Unless the public stand up against this it will get worse. The problem is the people that do this — it's not the council or the cleaners.'

At the Wharf toilets it was comparatively plain sailing. Both the ladies and the gents were clean from the day before.

But 41-year-old cleaner Alan King said the visions that often greeted him and his colleagues were 'soul destroying'.

'This job is a real eye opener. I have done all sorts of things and I like taking pride in what ever I do. But the things people do is mind-boggling.'

Sandwiches thrown into urinals, mothers blocking toilets with nappies, seats smashed, toilet rolls stolen and the holders kicked off the wall, lights removed . . . the list is endless. Worse, is all manner of defecation.

Alan says often the ladies' toilets are worse than the men's. In one Tavistock toilet, bottles are regularly drunk, then hurled at a wall mirror leaving a mosaic of glass shards across the floor.

'As soon as you have done the cleaning you have to forget it because otherwise you would never leave. I have replaced two broken toilet seats in the same cubicle in one day, ' he says.

Phil Squires, head of the cleaning firm that has had the contract for three years, said some of the problems were not purely vandalism.

'The vandalism is coming from the younger generation but there is misuse coming from the older generation. We suffer something almost daily. It is silly and stupid.'

West Devon Borough Council client manager Mary Tindall said the council was always looking for ways of dissuading vandalism. Architectural design and installing fittings that were resistant to damage are major weapons in their armoury.

'It is one of the Cinderella services — members of the public see the cleaners but not all the behind the scenes effort and innovation.'

The parishes clean their own toilets with cleaners paid for by grants from West Devon.

'In the parishes it has taken the role to the community. They know if someone locally has done damage. We get more vandalism in Tavistock and Okehampton where it is more impersonal,' said Miss Tindall.

'In the villages everybody knows the cleaner. It isn't a faceless person, it's someone's mum. . .'