CHORLEY Library users are being told to find a pub if they need the toilet.

And staff suggested that one little boy should "use the gully outside", it was revealed this week.

Now Lancashire County Council, which runs the library service, is being urged to sort out the situation.

Complaints about there being no public toilets at the main library in Union Street were made at a meeting of Chorley Borough Council's disability liaison committee on Monday night.

But the poor facilities have come under fire from able-bodied folk, too.

A 66-year-old Chorley grandmother, who asked not to be named, said: "I was on a computer course and asked to use the toilet one night and was told to go outside and find a pub."

The woman, who now travels to Preston Library instead of Chorley, said library users are told to go to the toilets on the market. "I think it is quite disgraceful, it is ridiculous," she added.

Councillor Cath Hoyle, committee chairman, said: "There was concern from people who are disabled and can't be expected to go to the market or a pub.

"I was stopped by someone in Adlington on a computer course and half way through the lesson they wanted to go to the toilet. It is putting her off going again.

Councillor Ralph Snape, a committee member, said: "People are leaving to go to Preston because of the poor facilities. We are driving people away. I think it is a total disgrace."

Chorley MP Lindsay Hoyle said: "Why should Chorley be treated any different than Blackburn and Preston?

"People spend hours there doing research and it is a public building, so it needs to have toilets, not just for disabled people but for everybody.

David Hamer, former licensee of the nearby Times Square pub and chairman of Chorley Pubwatch, said: "It does appear to be a problem at the library."

A county council spokesman confirmed the toilets in Chorley Library were on the first floor and only available to those attending meetings.

He said: "The provision of toilet facilities for use by members of the public has long been an issue for public library services, both locally and nationally.

"However, in view of the fact users are spending long periods in libraries using the computers, attending courses or studying, and that there is a desire to offer a welcoming environment to all users, we are anxious to make progress in making facilities available where possible and increasing the number of disabled toilets is something we are actively pursuing."

He said an inspection of all the libraries in Lancashire that do not have public toilets was currently being carried out, and added: "Policies and a programme of work will then be drawn up to provide facilities. Where it is not possible to provide a facility, an inspection report will be available detailing the reasons."