PUBLIC toilets at Malham and Cowling will be closed if councillors at Craven District Council agree with an officer's recommendations.

Members of the community services committee approved a recommendation from Peter Chapman, head of leisure and community facilities, to close the two toilets.

However, the decision still has to be ratified by the performance and resources committee.

Closure was recommended because the toilets failed to meet Disability Discrimination Act standards and the cost of bringing them up to standard outweighed the actual use.

In addition, a further five public toilets are to be transferred to other owners where available.

These are Bradley, Hebden, Ingleton (Thacking Lane), Carleton and Hellifield.

Mr Chapman said a figure in the region of £700,000 would be needed to bring all 19 public toilets currently operated by the council up to standard. The annual cost of operating them is estimated at around £278,820.

Speaking on behalf of Coun Stephen Butcher, Coun Marcia Turner said: "Malham cannot be compared with Cowling because the visitor numbers in the summer mean the toilets are heaving.

"If Malham is going to be closed, then the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority should be asked to open its own toilets later during autumn and winter."

Coun Turner said her own view was that the toilets off Coach Street, Skipton - on which a decision has been mothballed until the bus station has been redeveloped - were vital and should be kept open.

"Often when coaches arrive for events like the Medieval Market, the first thing everyone does is go to the toilets," she said.

Coun Robert Mason said if the council could sacrifice Malham and use the money to keep another set of toilets open, then he would support that. "We have a moral, if not legal, obligation to provide public toilets," he added.

Committee chairman Paul English said the main problem was that the council's toilets had not been invested in, for whatever reason, for about 20 years.

Coun Richard Welch said the council needed to take a serious look at the signage of all its public toilets to improve access to them.