A TELEGRAPH & Argus story from 13 years ago is set to be removed from specific Google searches under controversial ‘Right to be Forgotten’ laws.

The search engine notified Newsquest (Bradford), which publishes the T&A, of its intent to ‘delete’ the story from its search results but did not give reasons why.

The move follows a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling in June which says articles deemed irrelevant or out of date should be wiped from search engines.

The article, published in March 2001, referred to a toilet block in a Bramhope car park being promoted on the internet as a meeting place for homosexual men.

The ruling only affects the European websites of search engine companies like Google and does not have the power to order newspapers to remove stories, although it will make it more difficult for people to search for certain stories.

The T&A’s general policy is not to delete, amend or annotate our archives unless there is an inaccuracy, and therefore the story will still appear on our website.

T&A editor Perry Austin-Clarke described the ECJ ruling as “an assault on the public’s right to know legitimate information”.