Pissoirs yet to take off

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Pissoirs yet to take off

Thursday, 12 February 2009

he pissoir on Clapham Common South Side was removed

OPEN-AIR toilets – or pissoirs – costing £200,000 were installed months ago, but none have ever been used.

The urinals rise from the ground when activated and are designed to stop people urinating in streets and doorways.

The three French-style pissoirs cost Labour-run Lambeth council £30,000 each and another £20,000 to install.

A fourth, on Clapham Common, had to be removed last year when it was found council officers had breached planning rules by placing it on parkland.

The others are in Brixton’s Electric Avenue, St Luke’s Avenue in Clapham and Kennington Lane, Vauxhall.

All three are fully operational, but have yet to be brought into service.

A council spokesman said: “The pissoirs are fully functional and operational, but there have been slight delays in bringing them into service.

“We are waiting on the delivery of extra hand-held controller devices as we want to make sure we have two sets of controllers for each facility so that there are spares.

“There is some remedial work that needs to be done to the footpath near the Brixton pissoir and it has been decided not to open that one until the work to remove trip hazards has been completed.”

The spokesman said the council was “keen to launch the three units together” and was hopeful they would be in use shortly.

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