Plans to pull the chain on a village toilet could be halted because parish councillors are considering taking over the running of it.

Addingham Parish Council is furious at the recommendation of the Bradford Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee to close the Sugar Hill toilet. Now the councillors may run it themselves once they get their own budget.

A report from Bradford Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee revealed that it was looking at the future of the toilet because of the amount of vandalism there .

The chairman of Addingham Parish Council, Gordon Campbell, said: "I just find it ridiculous that they are contemplating it. It may be something that once quality controlling comes along and we get a budget ourselves we could take control of it.

"We are a rural village and our toilets are used by walkers, cyclists and indeed all manner of visitors to the village. It is a public facility and they cannot expect tourists to go to the pub for a drink so they can use the toilets.

"So what if it costs £7,500 to maintain the facilities?. Do they expect to spend nothing at all in the rural community?"

The closure recommendation comes after the committee described the Sugar Hill toilet as being 'difficult' to upgrade, with no disabled access.

The council says the toilets are subject to "repeated vandalism and graffiti attacks', and closing them would save £7,500, as the upgrading cost was £20,000.

The report states: "The provision of public conveniences is one of the longest established of all municipal services. Despite this there is no statutory requirement for a local authority to provide public toilet facilities.

"Broadly, the trend has been to close public conveniences of outdated standard, in redundant locations and those associated with excessive nuisances."

Officers recommended that the council continued to provide public conveniences in shopping locations and major town centres, where there was no other service provider.

The report adds: "The council should not, in general, provide public conveniences in minor shopping or village locations as the level of use does not justify such provision."

A spokesman for Bradford Council said what had come out of the review on public conveniences were just proposals at the moment and any decisions would be made by the council's executive committee at a later date.

Bradford's environment chief and Ilkley district and parish councillor, Anne Hawkesworth, said: "I think the toilets in the tourist areas are of prime importance because people may never return if the toilets are bad."

The report lists 17 public toilets across the district which could be shut down, saving thousands of pounds in maintenance.

The council says that the savings will be used to improve other toilets, especially in prime tourist locations.

The parish council is going to write a letter to Councillor Hawkesworth on the matter.