BOURNEMOUTH'S call of nature has been answered by plans to improve the town's toilet facilities for visitors and residents.

Members of the council's Sustaining Our Environment Scrutiny and Review Panel heard that the toilets in Westover Road are going to be kept open for an extra four hours as an experiment and will now stay open until 2am.

Residents have complained that the toilets are currently only allowed to stay open until 10am, well before pub closing time.

However, the panel also heard that work also needs to be done on improving the rest of town's toilets. Feedback from a recent survey has found that the toilets in the borough are old and in need of updating.

Panel chairman Roger West called for a report on public conveniences within the next six months.

He said: "The public has had to put up with some pretty awful toilets.

"The urinals in Westover Road do not work and some of the town's toilets are sometimes designed unbelievably badly.

"We should have a proper plan in place for all the changes we need."

In addition, two 24-hour Automatic Public Conveniences will be installed at Horseshoe Common from July.

Cllr West welcomed the new facilities in Horseshoe Common.

"This is really good news. It is the first time in ten years that anyone has done anything about this."

Cllr Angela Manton, said that public conveniences for disabled people would also be a consideration: "We have made £100,000 available over three years. We walked the seafront with people who are wheelchair-bound to examine the facilities and are attending to the problems as we speak."

First published: May 21