GROUPS of men meeting for gay sex liaisons at a Bramhope public toilet are more organised than the police, a nearby resident has claimed.

And police measures to install a camera to keep watch on the toilets, located in the car park between the Fox and Hounds pub and the Robert Craven Memorial Hall, were unlikely to stop the gay meetings, he said.

David Foreman-Marshall told a meeting of Bramhope Parish Council that despite recent police measures, the dark nights gave cover to men meeting for homosexual activities, and their behaviour made their intentions obvious.

He said: "If I am desperate for a wee, I park right up next to the toilets and go. It is amazing how many of them are walking up Old Lane.

"It is unbelievable and believe you me, they are very well organised. They are more organised than the police."

Mr Foreman-Marshall said that the people involved knew when the police were arriving and they then stopped altogether. They had mobile phones and went straight in and out of the toilets.

"A camera will not solve this, " he added

Councillor Ron Stubbs asked why the toilets could not be closed, and Coun Fred McHale said that he had read about toilets being closed at Clapham Common, because of gay activities in public, in the press coverage on the resignation of former Welsh Secretary Ron Davies.

And Coun Stubbs said: "The last meeting we had was at the time a young boy was attacked in the middle of Leeds at BHS, and we can't close these?"

But the chairman, Coun John Mordy, said that the closure of the toilets was not up to the parish council, but Leeds City Council, which had indicated that closure was not an option.

He said: "It is a non-starter. If there is a major problem, there is also clearly an issue that a lot of people use these toilets very legitimately."

But Coun Stubbs was unhappy at the lack of action to curb the gay meetings.

He said: "As a parish council, I think we could be criticised for the action we have not taken."

And Mr Foreman-Marshall felt that fewer and fewer legitimate users were visiting the toilets for fear of what they they might find.

He said: "I look out the window and I see the walkers and I see them point and they don't go in because of what they might find inside.

"With this sort of publicity going on with these toilets, no-one will use them eventually."

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