'BETWIXT the devil and the deep blue sea' is an expression that could aptly be applied to a whole host of situations arising in everyday life.

Take the current issue of the vandalised public toilets in Addingham (see Page 7). Here we have Bradford Metropolitan Council, charged with spending the public purse wisely and sensibly, feeling that it is throwing good money after bad by repairing the toilets only to see them repeatedly vandalised.

From a purely financial point of view, it is perhaps understandable that the authority is considering the future of the toilets - and their possible closure. In fact, there are 17 such public conveniences across the district which have been earmarked for similar action.

The council argument is that it does not have a statutory duty to provide public toilets, those at Addingham cost £7,500 a year to maintain and in their current state are no attraction to visitors, and that the council is to concentrate on those public toilets in shopping thoroughfares and in main cities.

The problem with this viewpoint is that while it sounds quite logical, it is typical city hall thinking. It understands the needs of the city but not the village. Walkers, cyclists and other tourists visit Addingham, which, bereft of public toilets, would lessen the attraction and could well be a deterrent to would-be visitors.

While the vandalism is to be deplored, £7,500 a year is not a huge amount. Neither is the £20,000 to upgrade the toilets to cater for disabled people when one considers that this is about the cost of an unnecessary traffic island.

Addingham parish councillors have not only taken unkindly to the suggestion that its public toilets could close, they have threatened to take over the running of the toilets themselves.

Let's face it, they shouldn't have to.