A district council plan to close public toilet has been met with united opposition by town councils in the area.

The town councils of Malvern, Upton and Tenbury have written to the authority to ask for a joint meeting to discuss the proposal.

"At a time when tourism is being promoted and there's talk of invigorating the town centre, I can't believe the district council is thinking of closing public toilets," said Malvern Town Council chairman Ralph Madden.

He said the district council was modernising the toilets in Grange Road, Malvern, but closing others in Edith Walk, Victoria Road and the Dingle in West Malvern. Other toilets in Upton and Tenbury are also facing closure.

The town councils have been offered the option of taking over and maintaining the toilets the district council cannot afford to renovate and keep open.

At around £30,000 a year, this would constitute a massive five per cent of the town council's total budget, said Coun Madden. With smaller populations and smaller budgets, the per centage would be even higher for Upton and Tenbury.

The three town councils are united in their objections to the proposal.

They claim lack of proper consultation, that the implications for tourism have not been considered, that sufficient importance has not been attached to this very basic but essential amenity and that the £30,000 cost is a relatively minor item in the overall budget of the district council.

District council leader Di Rayner said the toilets the authority wanted to close were in a dreadful state and the cost of upgrading them was prohibitive.

She said the council intended to maintain one good public toilet in each of the district's commercial centres.

"We have to consider value for money for local residents," she said.