A small town in Bavaria has finally run out of toilet paper, 12 years after a bungled order by the local council left it with a massive stockpile.

“The final roll has been used up,” Erwin Karg, the relieved mayor of Fuchstal, announced this week.

The sleepy town of 3,800 inhabitants found itself lumbered with a mountain of loo rolls in 2006, after a money saving initiative by the council went wrong.

The town spotted an opportunity for savings by bulk buying toilet paper in advance, but a council employee mixed up the order and managed to buy two lorryloads.

The first anyone knew of the mishap was when the first lorry turned up. Council staff managed to cancel the second lorry when they realised what had happened, but still found themselves stuck with €6,000 (£5,100) of loo rolls.

To make matters worse, the budget toilet paper was grey and single-ply, and had a tendency to turn yellow over time, with the result that few local residents were keen on taking it off the council’s hands.

Instead, a team of four council workers set to work stashing the loo rolls in every storage space available, including the town hall, the fire station and local schools, where for years caches of toilet paper could be found in practically every cupboard.