New loo rises out of the ground

"Popup" urinals are the latest innovation in the battle to provide late-night revellers with more places to spend a penny.

By day, they will look like manhole covers. But by night, the "telescopic urinals" will rise from the West End concrete to provide valuable extra cover as the pubs begin to empty.

A spokesman for Westminster council, which plans to install the units on four sites, said: "The advantage with them is that they don't take up space during the day. At around 9pm they will rise out of the ground, and then they will retract again at around 8am. They are also connected to underground sewage works so they can be emptied and cleaned automatically."

There is no risk of anybody being dragged underground as they relieve themselves on the early morning deadline. The raising and lowering mechanism can only be activated by a council street warden, who must be on the spot to do so.

The stainless steel, Dutchbuilt units - already proved successful in their native country - contain three urinals each. They are the latest in a series of lavatorial innovations from the council, including openair "pissoirs" placed around Soho and Covent Garden at weekends, female urinals, and £50 on-the-spot fines for anybody discovered urinating in the street.

The council even boasts on its website that "so far, 56,000 male users have produced 3,700 gallons of urine at these facilities."

Despite all this the council still has to employ teams of street cleaners to hose down known "hot spots" every morning.