A TOWN mayor has hit out at "nasty-minded louts" who have been stealing hand soap from public toilets.

The Leader has reported several times in recent weeks how shops have seen a huge surge in demand for items such as anti-bacterial hand gels and soaps, toilet roll and more as the public prepares itself for increasing cases of coronavirus.

Buckley Town Council said on Thursday morning that the hand wash dispensers had been vandalised three days in a row at the town's public toilets.

After 'ripping' the devices from the wall, a spokesman said, the contents had been carefully removed by the vandals and taken "for their own selfish ends".

The spokesman said: "Would the people who keep vandalising the dispensers please stop doing so.

"Otherwise there will not be the facility there to provide the hand wash.

"Each time, we have had to replace the whole unit and they are not cheap."

Buckley mayor Cllr Arnold Woolley said: "With idiots like this, heaven help the community.

"Everyone who wishes to go into the toilet and safely wash their hands for 20 seconds are now finding that they cannot find any of the proper liquid which kills the virus - because we know cold water doesn't.

"They are exposing others to risk and it looks like the contents of the dispensers have been carefully gathered up and carted away for entirely selfish purposes. "These are nasty minded louts and I would say to them that we need everyone behaving responsibly and sharing the burden we currently have."

Cllr Woolley also spoke of the impact the repairs has for Buckley Town Council, adding: "Apart from damage to property, which is what this is, these are public pennies being spent to repair damage that never should have occurred in the first place."