A DISABLED man from Chorley is fuming with council chiefs over plans to flush a proposed town centre toilet down the pan.

Thousands of disabled people in the area could be forced to spend a penny elsewhere if Chorley Borough Council bosses fail to rubber stamp plans to site a public toilet for the disabled on the edge of Market Walk Shopping Centre, in Chorley.

The new idea has been spearheaded by the centre's managers who have rallied round the arcade's shop owners in order to get the cash together for a disabled toilet and baby changing facilities next to the Iceland store, in the building currently used as a storage unit for market traders.

But, their plans have fuelled a row with council chiefs, who say they want the toilet elsewhere.

Now, Market Walk Centre manager Pat Duckett, says shop owners are threatening to pull the plug on cash for the disabled lavatory if council leaders fail to give the plan the green light.

He added: "As far as we are concerned we would like to have the toilet there and no doubt the town's people would like to have it there as well.

"We have a situation were there is a stalemate between the council and ourselves over where we are actually going to put it. "From a security standpoint we would be able to keep an eye on it.

"We have got to think of the shopping public that use the centre."

Coppull Parish councillor, Ron Parkinson, of Longworth Avenue, Coppull, has slammed the row an "outrage" and has challenged able-bodied council chiefs to take to wheelchairs before shopping in the town centre.

He said: "It is absolutely scandalous.

"I would ask Chorley Council bosses to put themselves into our position and see the problems that we have to face.

"Disabled people are council taxpayers just like other folk in the borough so why shouldn't we have decent public facilities like others.

"We have money to spend just like anyone else yet the facilities on offer in the town are very poor.

"These days many disabled people are going to other towns to shop because of problems such as this and, therefore, taking good money out of the town."

Spokesman for Chorley Borough Council's property services department, Paul Hallam, said: "What they want to use is a small piece of the council compound at the back of Iceland.

"We were quite prepared to let them have a small piece of the land.

"But we're unable to agree on a suitable replacement site for the market stalls which would be displaced."