Long-suffering contractors at Shepton Mallet's Collett Park are calling for the public toilets there to be closed at 4.30pm each day in the wake of vandalism and abuse by users.

Shocked town councillors heard from Quadron's park contractor Wayne Frapple that all too often his team were greeted with toilets deliberately blocked with loo rolls and faeces smeared all over the cubicles when they arrived for work.

The ladies' loos in particular were being left in an awful mess, he said.

"It is not fair on the park-keeper to be greeted by this each morning," he told councillors at a meeting of Shepton's Service Delivery Committee last week.

"It is not a pleasant thing to deal with."

He said the toilet rolls just being thrown into toilets for fun was a complete waste of money – the number of toilet rolls ordered recently had doubled.

He asked the council to seriously consider shutting the park's toilets at 4.30pm when staff went home.

Councillors condemned the behaviour by some people as absolutely disgraceful.

And Councillor Bente Height commented that the women leaving the ladies in such a state should not even be termed "ladies".

Councillor Margaret Robinson said: "They should be closed at 4.30pm when the park keeper goes home. There will be complaints and people will moan about them being closed but if they are going to be continually vandalised, they should not remain open."

She suggested that maybe they should consider employing an evening supervisor.

Councillor Judy Bartlett described the behaviour as "totally unacceptable".

She said: "It has got to be made clear to these people that these toilets will not remain open for them."

But Councillor Martin Lovell said that visitors finding the toilets locked early could be given a bad impression of the town.

Councillor Colin Lockey said the toilets were only intended for park users.

Councillor Chris Inchley said though he had every sympathy with park staff having to clear up after "these disgusting people", shutting the toilets at 4.30pm would be a retrograde step as many people used the park on their way home from work – and used the toilets too.

Councillor Terry Marsh pointed out that many people enjoyed visiting the park in the evenings.

Town council clerk Graham Brown said he would like to know more about the incidents, their frequency and whether the police had been informed.

Mr Frapple said he would keep a full record and pictures of incidents from now on and report back to the next meeting.

Councillors agreed that in the meantime the loos would keep to their current closing time of 6.30pm but a public notice will be put up warning users that if they keep being misused they will be locked earlier.