A PARISH council has had to take its website off-line because it was providing links to child pornography, dodgy trips to Thailand and other explicit material.

A PARISH council has had to take its website off-line because it was providing links to child pornography, dodgy trips to Thailand and other explicit material.

The interactive pages, supplied for Yatton residents, were immediately withdrawn from the public domain after the sleazy information was discovered.

Acting chairman Juley Howard says she and clerk, Xanne Blythe, made the decision to take the site off-line to protect the public from having to look at the material.

She said: "Yatton Parish Council's website was taken off-line because of links to unsavoury and unpleasant things that potentially offered a threat to the well-being of anyone looking at them.

"On October 15 we made a decision to close the website down. For a few days it continued to exist with a temporary page but then the whole thing was taken off-line. This matter has been referred to the police for investigation.

"The links were unacceptable and we had to make an executive decision because we couldn't leave those types of links on the internet.

"All we can do is act to protect the parish council's website."

The website will be off-line until further notice but the parish council will notify the public through the Weston & Somerset Mercury when it is back up and running.