SOME of Otley's youngest residents have taken direct action to improve the state of a public toilet.

The condition of the facilities at the cafe in Wharfemeadows Park has been the source of a string of recent online complaints.

Councillor Sandy Lay (Lib Dem, Otley & Yeadon) has taken up the issue with Leeds City Council's Parks and Countryside department.

In the meantime, a call went out for volunteers to help - and was taken up by Georgina Newsham with some assistance from her daughters Maisie, seven, and five year old Lily.

She said: "There was a recent Facebook thread about the state of the toilet at the cafe in Otley park - apparently it isn’t the cafe's responsibility to clean them.

"Suggestions were made to take community action and two people volunteered.

"I was one of them and my little girl Maisie wanted to help me because her little sister, Lily, doesn’t like to use the toilets because of how awful they are."

Cllr Lay has been told that the city council is responsible for cleaning the toilets during the week, while the cafe is responsible at weekends.

He said: "My view is that it's in everyone's interests to have clean toilets.

"I also think the cafe owners are doing a good job with longer opening hours - so the toilets are available for longer and have greater potential to get dirty.

"I'm asking Parks and Countryside to see what more can be done."