IT'S great news that Riverside Gardens is to have a revamped public toilet for this year's tourist season. But will there be any guarantees that the same problems will not plague the toilets again?

The public toilets have a reputation for attracting the wrong sort of visitor. Because of the distasteful activities of certain people, someone else has taken it into their heads to exact revenge upon the building itself. While various officials and interested parties are getting together, wracking their brains as to the best way of prevent a repeat of the trouble, might it be pertinent to suggest that the police ought to be involved in some way.

While society has thankfully moved on from the ignorant days when homosexuality was a crime, it is still against the law to indulge in any kind of sexual congress in a public place, and quite rightly so. It is also against the law to pour underwater setting concrete down the pan of a public toilet or to commit any other act which results in the toilets being rendered unusable.

So while the two crimes have been taking place regularly over the past few years, leaving tourists bursting with frustration and councillors scratching their heads in dismay, what have the police in Ilkley being doing? While it would be draconian and a waste of resources to drag gay men into court, a police presence at the toilets for just a few nights could have resulted in the building becoming less of an attractive place to meet. Who knows, it might even have resulted in Riverside Gardens being deleted from the gay web site Gazette reporters found it on.

And the vandal humping various bags of concrete and heavy tools around in the middle of the night may also have been deterred by the sight of a uniform or two. Heaven forbid, he or she might even have been caught and prosecuted.