Toilets in Ilkley and Haworth are in line for £250,000 improvement after councillors approved a major action plan.

The lavatories at Prod Lane, Shipley Glen, are also at the top of the list of 17 which will get improvements if the money can be set aside.

But the sting for visitors and residents is that people would have to pay 20p to spend a penny in toilets where the Council decides to have attendants.

Officers say toilets across the district cost £300,000 a year to run, covering cleaning, repairs, the cost of attendants at the City Hall toilets, vandalism and business rates.

They said in the past refurbishments and improvements had been funded from the cleansing budgets. But the officers said a 20p charge could bring in as much as £10,000 a year at busy toilets such as Haworth's.

The Waste Management Sub- Committee will ask the body on the reorganised Council dealing with funding to put the scheme in the capital programme.

Its chairman, Councillor Keith Thomson, said a charge of 20p for the toilets compared with a 1p charge in the 1930s was good value. He said he believed people would be willing to pay it.

Sub-committee members were told the charge at the vandalised Ilkley toilets would bring in £11,000 a year which could go towards the cost of an attendant.

The improvements would include nappy changing facilities, refurbishment and improved facilities for disabled people.

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth (Con, Ilkley) said she believed people would be prepared to pay the charge.

"It's essential to have a high quality service in a place like Ilkley. It will actually stop people from visiting if the toilets don't improve," she added.

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