PUPILS at a Chippenham senior school, who were worried that it was about to follow in the footsteps of another north Wiltshire school and remove toilet doors in a bid to reduce vandalism, have been assured it will not happen.

The student council of Abbeyfield School had suggested to joint heads Nick Norgrove and Ralph Plummer that the door to toilets could be removed and listed a number of worries about the state of the loos.

But this week Mr Plummer said this was not the plan and during the half-term holiday next week a new toilet block was to be installed.

He said: “We have listened to student voice which we take very seriously and we have worked with the PFI to ensure there is a new set of toilets coming on board during half term.”

Abbeyfield School was built under a Private Finance Initiative 20 years ago and any major work or changes has to be approved by the private firm G4S.

Minutes of the school council showed upset about the condition of some of the toilets in the school and reported: “Students would like toilets to be cleaner because there was toilet paper on the floor, no toilet seats on some of the girls’ changing room toilets, doors don’t fit cubicles and some toilets don’t flush.

“One solution could be to make the toilets cleaner is to take off the main door to the English, science and street toilets.”

This outraged some pupils and one contacted the Gazette to say that if the door was removed the urinals would be in full view from the corridor.

Mr Plummer said many of the issues had already been dealt with and the idea of taking off doors was not being pursued.

In October Malmesbury School caused outrage among some pupils when it decided to removed the doors to boys’ toilets.

One teenager allegedly staged a dirty protest by defecating in the corridor after the school removed the outer door to the toilets so they would be kept cleaner.

Head John Barrett said: “We have taken the decision to remove the outer doors on two toilets only. The urinals are not visible.”

“It is not unusual for modern school toilets to be purposefully designed in this way.

“If students value additional privacy, there are of course separate toilet cubicles with doors.

“Students now have a choice of whether to use these toilets or the remaining toilets with an outer door.”