Updated: COUNCIL chiefs are hoping to flush out more support for a new public toilet plan – by launching a pilot project in part of the city.

A review of the York’s heavily-criticised lavatories has seen City of York Council devise the idea of adopting a community toilet scheme, involving local businesses allowing people to use their loos without buying anything. And despite an initially mixed response, the authority is now set to give the go-ahead to trialling the project in Acomb, where the current unmanned public toilets have been marked out as in dire need of improvements.

The council prefers the scheme to installing hydraulic urinals which can be stored underground during the day before being raised at night, and says similar initiatives have proved successful and saved money in other parts of the UK – with the quality of York’s loos being vital to the city’s “image and reputation”.

But when members of York’s business community were asked for their views earlier this year, 60 per cent were not keen and feared allowing non-customers to use their toilets could harm the facilities.

A report recommending the approval of the Acomb trial, which will go before the authority’s executive member for neighbourhood services, Coun Ann Reid, next week, said businesses signing up for the scheme could receive free publicity, street cleaning and graffiti removal from the council, rather than payments. “Implementing a community toilet scheme would deliver value for money and provide further public convenience provision for residents and visitors,” said the director of neighbourhood services, Sally Burns.