Skipton’s mayor has reacted angrily to a decision to close the public toilets at the town’s busy bus station.

The two toilets, which formed part of the bus station’s £1.2 million refurbishment scheme in 2009, have been declared too expensive to run by Craven District Council.

It says the toilets cost about £2 per user – the public pay a 20p charge – and about £20,000 per year to maintain.

But the mayor of Skipton, Coun John Kerwin-Davey, said the decision to close “defied belief”.

“A few short years ago an enormous amount of ratepayers money was spent on building these toilets, but now those responsible have found we can’t afford to run them – even though people have to pay to use them.

“You couldn’t make it up,” he said.

Councillor Alan Sutcliffe (Cons), the district council’s lead member for financial resilience, said: “Not enough people are using this facility to justify the large sum of money we spend each year on cleaning and maintenance.”