THE Bronte Parsonage Museum is looking into building its own public toilets in readiness for when Bradford Council withdraws funding from public loos in the village.

Councillor David Mahon informed fellow parish councillors of this at a meeting of Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council.

But he said he understood that if these new toilets are built they would only be for museum visitors.

The parsonage has this week confirmed the news.

The parish council is considering what action it should take to address the loss of funding for both the toilets in Haworth Central Park and the Bronte Parsonage car park.

Cllr Mahon said: "We're still in talks with Bradford Council.

"What we do know is that about 15,000 adults use the toilets in Haworth Central Park each year but the toilets in the car park are used even more than that.

"We have looked into the idea of getting pubs to open up their toilets to the public.

"But the pubs aren't really happy with this. They wouldn't mind one or two people coming into use their toilets, but not a whole coach load of 30 or 40 people."

Responding to a query about whether village traders would be willing to offer funding, he said this line of enquiry had also not proved fruitful. "Some of the traders are already struggling and are only just about keeping their heads above water," he added.

Councillor Peter Clarke said: "I'm very passionate about the idea of this council providing services to the village.

"Our council running public toilets for the village would be a fantastic thing for us to do."

Council chairman Cllr Gary Swallow said: "The way Bradford Council is managing the toilets at the moment is uneconomical. What Cllr Mahon is looking at now is a more efficient way of running the toilets."

Cllr Mahon suggested that if the parish council is prepared to consider taking on the management of the toilets itself, it could do so initially for an 18-month or two-year period then decide whether its continued involvement is viable.

He stressed that the parish council would need to find people willing to open and lock up the toilets on a rota basis.

Cllr Tito Arana warned that heavily used public toilets in Haworth, especially during major events such as the 1940s Weekend, would require someone to man them for hours at a time.

He said it would be very difficult to find someone willing to commit to this on a voluntary basis.

Bradford Council has indicated that it intends to withdraw support from the toilet blocks in Haworth Central Park and at the Bronte Parsonage Car Park from April 2018.

It has estimated that pulling its funding from these facilities would save it more than £53,000 a year in running costs.