Temporary urinals to stem flow of public urination at Surfers Paradise

Temporary urinals will be rolled into the Gold Coast's nightclub precinct again this Christmas to stem the flow of public urination.

The temporary toilets will be brought in at midnight and will leave about five hours later. (Twitter: Richard Holliday)

Last year, one of the open-air urinals collected 600 litres of urine which could have otherwise hit the streets or shop fronts at Surfers Paradise.

The program will be repeated until the Gold Coast City Council finds a permanent solution.

Councillor Lex Bell said the temporary toilets would be brought in about midnight and leave about five hours later.

The temporary urinals, which originally offered little privacy, sparked public outrage last Christmas until modesty screens were added.

Nevertheless, they proved effective.

"One weekend one of those public toilets took 600 litres of urine that otherwise would have flowed into the footpath so it was quite effective," Cr Bell said.

"Now we can get around that in a much more acceptable manner by putting toilets on the back of a truck but we want something more permanent, we don't want to be putting temporary [urinals in] forever in central Surfers Paradise."

Cr Bell said the council had half a million dollars to spend on a new toilet block but a suitable site was yet to be found.

He said the permanent toilets, which would be open day and night, needed to be fairly visible and within the "stagger zone" of nightclub patrons in Orchid Avenue.

Source: ABC News   Charmaine Kane  2nd June 2015