Politicians have criticised the Ministry of Justice after it spent £13,000 on toilets which are now being demolished as part of a major Bradford city centre redevelopment scheme.

Work began in August to build a new £4.5m custody suite at the back of the Bradford and Keighley Magistrates' Court building in The Tyrls, and is due to be completed in March.

It will replace the cells still being used at the disused old police station, linked to the courts by an underground tunnel, and allow that building to be demolished to make way for a new office block, a crucial part of city centre redevelopment plans.

But it has been revealed that posh new toilets, which were refurbished in December 2012 by the MoJ at a cost of £13,000, and were used by probation service staff in the magistrates' court building, are now to be demolished to make way for a lift to transport prisoners between the cells and the court as part of the custody suite scheme.

A spokesman for the HM Courts and Tribunals Service said the toilets were refurbished before Bradford Council produced its plans for the new custody suite in the Spring of this year.

But Councillor Simon Cooke, deputy leader of the Conservatives on Bradford Council, said: "It's not like this scheme has come as a surprise. We have been talking about the court, off and on, for 15 years, and there have been ongoing discussions about what happens there.

"The asset management people and the property people at the MoJ will have known all about the ongoing discussions. It seems to me like a classic example of how different bits of Government, in this case the MoJ, do not talk to each other, and the result looks like a bit of a waste of public money."

Bradford West Respect MP George Galloway also criticised the decision.

He said: "This is just another example of taxpayers' cash being flushed down the toilet. Why was a penny spent when it was known that redevelopment was going to happen.

"It's expensive idiocies like this which erode people's trust in politicians."

The Courts and Tribunals Service spokesman said the toilets would be relocated to another part of the court complex and the fittings would be re-used where possible. He added: "We haven't got any further details to what will be re-used."

A Bradford Council spokesman said: "All the designs have been fully consulted on with the local management team at the Magistrates' Court and have been approved by them and by the Ministry of Justice whose building it is. We are therefore assured that there are sufficient facilities to service the needs of everybody using or working in the building."