PEOPLE hoping to spend a penny at a newly-built £164,000 toilet and shower block at a North Yorkshire marina will have to wait until August.

Visitors to Ripon's marina, which links with the city's canal, had thought the project was complete. But when they tried to use the toilet block, they found the facility unavailable.

British Waterways said it has not yet been connected to the sewer.

After hearing of the confusion an official said they would be putting a notice on the building explaining that the facility would not be ready until August.

"This is a built-in delay as part of the project. It is not something where we are just twiddling our thumbs," said the official.

Although the toilet block will eventually bring welcome relief for boaters to the marina, near Ripon Racecourse, a spokesman for Yorkshire Water said no application to connect the toilet and shower block to the sewer had yet been made.

"Until we receive an application we are unable to assess it," said the spokesman.

British Waterways said they had submitted a form to Yorkshire Water but had not yet had a response.

Meanwhile, boaters have been told that another toilet is available just a ten-minute cruise away.

Ripon Canal, the country's most northerly part of the network, cost £500,000 and was opened in 1996 with the marina created in 1999.

A second phase of the scheme will cost £137,000. Cash is being spent on improvement to towpaths in a move to encourage links into Ripon city centre.