NEW public loos for Bentham will be built in the town's Grasmere Car Park.

The existing toilets on School Hill will be demolished and a new block built next to the recycling bins in the car park. The whole scheme is expected to cost around £78,000.

Members of Craven District Council's finance and property committee voted to move the conveniences, and now tenders will be invited for the work.

The decision comes after a long-running debate in Bentham over where the toilets should be.

A show of hands at a public meeting indicated support for moving the loos so that a millennium green could be established in the area.

However, Bentham Town Council had decided it preferred the toilets staying where they were, reversing an earlier decision to resite them in Cleveland Square after an outcry from residents.

Later, Craven Council officers were asked to look at the Grasmere car park site, and members agreed this was the best place.

But Coun Peter Walbank said that Bentham ward represenatative, Coun Gerald Hurtley, was in favour of the toilets staying in School Hill.

He said: "The auction mart is near the toilets at the moment and they have a number of car boot sales. School buses also call there, and the parish council voted to leave them where they are.

"Coun Hurtley suggests the larger feeling in Bentham is that the toilets should be either refurbished or demolished and rebuilt where they are because the sewers are already in existence."

But Coun Carl Lis said he understood from former district councillor, Ralph Atkinson, that the groundswell of opinion in Bentham was for the loos to be moved.

Head of planning and property, Duncan Hartley, said the relocation would not result in the loss of any car parking spaces.

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