IT is a saga which has left village residents feeling a little flushed - but the tale of the missing toilet has taken another twist.Having had their popular local icon - a flower-filled porcelain toilet deposited at a T-junction - stolen last week, many villagers in Westhall, near Halesworth, feared hopes of its return had gone down the pan.

IT is a saga which has left village residents feeling a little flushed - but the tale of the missing toilet has taken another twist.

Having had their popular local icon - a flower-filled porcelain toilet deposited at a T-junction - stolen last week, many villagers in Westhall, near Halesworth, feared hopes of its return had gone down the pan.

But a new loo suddenly appeared in the village overnight on Friday .

The residents had been baffled by the disappearance of the toilet, which had become a talking point of the village, when it went missing last Thursday just before it was about to be featured on the radio.

They were then sent a ransom demand by text message which told the villagers to pay £20 or they would never see the toilet again.

But on Saturday morning they woke up to find a new one filled with daffodils, primroses and a flowering thistle had been placed at the T-junction.

Sara Jolly, who works at Tony's News in the village, said: “It must've come overnight but we have no idea who put it there.”

Gilly Leech, who planted the flowers in the original toilet, said it was definitely a different one and she thought she might have an idea who put it there.

She said: “My husband Tony and I were just saying on Friday night in the pub how we felt a bit down because it was all a bit of fun and then on Saturday morning I got a call from Sara at the shop saying it had been brought back.”

All of the toilet humour started when the loo was found in a nearby ditch a fortnight ago and had since taken pride of place in the centre of the T-junction.

It was then given a floral facelift by Mr and Mrs Leech and their friends Bob Silsby and Ellie Sedgwick.

Mrs Leech said: “We went to the pub and we were chatting and thought: 'why don't we plant it up?'

“So Tony and I went and bought a lot of spring flowers and Ellie and Bob got the earth - it looked so lovely when we finished and people were going past waving and putting their thumbs up.

“Some people I know were not amused and I don't know why - we just wanted to brighten it up.”

She added: “We're a fun village, we're only small but we get up to things and do mad things like this.”