TOURISTS are leaving Ilkley with a bad smell in their noses after cleansing bosses failed to deliver their promise to reopen vandal-hit toilets.

The delay in the work has led to fears that the toilets will be closed for good, giving frustrated visitors a day out never to forget - but for all the wrong reasons.

The men's lavatories at the Riverside Gardens were closed in September after repeated vandalism attacks, culminating in cement being poured down a toilet bowl.

Bradford Council promised to repair the gents toilets and reopen them in time for the Easter holiday. But at the weekend - the hottest of the year so far - thousands of visitors thronged to the riverside and found the gents still shut.

The ladies loos, which were open, were described by one tourist as 'utterly disgusting'.

Susan Noble, of Bolton Woods, Bradford, who visited the Riverside Gardens on Sunday, said she was amazed that the gents toilets were shut.

"The gents was blocked with a metal guard across," she said. "I'd gone with four boys aged between six and 12 - my two sons and two friends. My youngest came into the ladies with me. The other wouldn't. He had to go round the back of the building. The other two boys couldn't go - they waited till they got home.

"There could have been another public loo somewhere in the town, but we couldn't have known where. If we'd have gone in the hotel we'd have had to buy a drink which kind of defeats the thing."

Bradford Council claims it cleans the ladies toilets on a daily basis but Mrs Noble, 41, said she found that impossible to believe.

"The ladies' was disgusting," she complained. "Three-foot darkness, a couple of inches deep in liquid, water or whatever. It smelt foul. They had definitely not been cleaned that day.

"We were glad we had shoes on and even then we wouldn't have wanted to walk in there. There were no paper towels and no loo paper.

"Perhaps it could have been a health hazard. Put it this way I'm glad we had the picnic before we went to the loo. I wouldn't have been keen on the children handling anything."

She said the state of the loos had marred the visit for her and for many other visitors.

"The number of people talking about it! One lady, when she did go in, said it had really spoilt her impression of Ilkley. Ilkley has always struck me as such a beautiful place but the state of the toilets is what you take back with you."

Now, Bradford Council has admitted it underestimated the cost of repairing the gents and rumours are rife that both sets of toilets will be permanently closed.

"When we began repairs on these toilets before Easter we discovered the damage was greater than we first believed and that the drainage system was completely blocked with concrete," said a spokesman for the council's cleansing department.

"We are now considering the cost implications of this." The spokesman could not confirm when, or indeed if, repair work would begin.

Ilkley parish councillor Mike Lynes this week criticised Bradford Council for failing to provide tourists with adequate amenities.

"I think there are many, many other areas which have similar problems of vandalism but have done something positive," he said. "We get more and more tourists coming to Ilkley each year and we give them less and less."

He said closing the riverside toilets permanently should not be an option. Instead, he said the authority should fork out the money to upgrade the loos.

"There are many vandal-proof toilets and systems that are available. Bradford gets £100,000 out of Ilkley each year. If it costs them ten per cent of that for tourists to be looked after that would be worth it."