BLACKPOOL Borough Council is abso-loo-tly delighted with a contract for new toilets in the borough.

Wee-ler dealing councillors have signed up Swedish firm Danfo to provide the council's new public toilet facilities for the next 15 years.

And, although a mixture of attended, semi-automatic, and fully automatic toilets worth £3m will be installed in several phases this summer and autumn, the council won't have to fork out the amount up-front.

"We needed to be able to make a real difference to our public toilets now and by signing this deal we get all the benefits of new toilets installed this year but can pay for them in manageable instalments," said David Sanders, the council's corporate director of leisure and learning.

In July, five semi-automatic toilets will be installed at Central and one in Bethesda Square. In August and September a further semi-automatic toilet will go in at the Cabin and four at Little Bispham, with more automatic public toilets being installed across the borough during September and October.

Councillor Fred Jackson, the council's portfolio holder for the urban environment, said: "The council is determined to give the public quality, cleanliness and convenience. This marks the end of climbing up and down stairs to go to a council-run public toilet and we hope it also heralds the end of vandalism and misuse."

Danfo took over the operation of Blackpool's existing public toilets earlier this month. Company chairman Tony Sandell commented: "We are proud to be the providers of public facilities but recognise that Blackpool will have its challenges. The salt air, along with being open 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, means that we have built in an extra level of servicing."

But the timing of the opening of new loos was panned by Conservative leader Councillor Peter Callow. He criticised the council for leaving a gap of several weeks between the latest loo closure -- the Winifred Street toilets at the Hounds Hill Centre -- and the opening of replacements.

Council leader Councillor Roy Fisher said it was unfortunate that the closure and the opening of replacements would not overlap, but because the new contract has only just been signed, Danfo needed time to actually get new toilets in place.