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Cash-strapped defence chiefs spent almost £15,000 on “gender-neutral” toilets – but female staff are refusing to use them because they are “too smelly”.

Top brass transformed 13 single-sex lavatories into mixed loos at the MoD in Whitehall.

Male and female signs were replaced with the word toilet, while sanitary towel dispensers and bins were installed.

The cost was revealed under Freedom of Information laws.

A female civil servant working at the HQ said last night: “I don’t go anywhere near the new gender-neutral loos as they’re too smelly.

(Image: Getty)

“None of my female colleagues feel comfortable using them.

“There was nothing wrong with the old toilets. Not one person ever complained. I don’t want to hear a man going to the toilet and I don’t want to make eye contact with him after I have been there.

“I doubt very much you could find a single person in the MoD who feels this policy is sensible. Everyone knows how strapped for cash the department is. Creating gender-neutral toilets is just daft.”

(Image: Stefan Boness/Ipon/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock)

Colonel Richard Kemp, former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, said: “It’s shocking that the Army is being dragged into political correctness.

“Given how stretched and how busy our forces are, it is surprising someone has time to worry about this sort of thing.”

The TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Creating gender-neutral toilets no one wants to use is flushing public money down the drain.

“Instead of frittering away cash for right-on nonsense, officials should focus on putting every penny into frontline services.”

An MoD spokesman said: “Like several other government departments, we offer gender neutral facilities as part of our modern and inclusive working environment.””