VISITORS to Hexham’s flagship parks are being caught short due to the unexpected closure of public toilets.

Young children are having accidents while others have been forced to relieve themselves near the town’s bowling green.

And now one town councillor is calling for an urgent review of what he has branded Hexham’s “inconvenient public conveniences”.

Coun. Rad Hare said he had heard of the toilets on the Sele being closed through the day on a number of occasions during August, and experienced the problem first hand when he visited the play park with his grandchildren.

“It just so happened that we had two grandchildren on the Sele in August and one of them, who shall remain nameless, had an accident,” he told the latest meeting of Hexham Town Council.

“I also noticed that one or two younger people were using areas around Hexham bowling green, which is a shame, but can be expected in the circumstances.”

The town council stepped in to subsidise the public toilets in Hexham two years ago when Northumberland County Council announced that, due to funding cuts, it would be permanently closing the facilities on St Mary’s Wynd and closing those on the Sele during the winter months.

Coun. Cath Homer said: “If we are paying for additional services, then we need to make sure the baseline services are there in the first place.”

Councillors agreed to seek answers from the county council’s director of local services Paul Jones.

A spokeswoman for Northumberland County Council said: “We are looking into this. The toilets are scheduled to be open from 7am until 5pm each day, and we also keep them open later during large-scale events in the parks.

“We haven’t previously been made aware of this issue, and would ask people to report any problems with the toilets to us on 0345 600 6400.”