The city has flushed plans to install pop-up urinals downtown and will now look at permanent fixtures ready to serve bursting bladders at all hours.

Plans for the pop-ups were approved by council last year with a budget of $240,000 to buy and install two units from Dutch manufacturer Urilift International, the only bidder.

They’ve now been shelved because of a number of difficulties.

“It really came down to risks around warranty, ongoing maintenance and support, as well as technical standards around plumbing and electrical,” said city spokesperson Katie Josephson.

Last week, the city put out a request for offers for design and concept drawings for fixed urinals.

With a $5,000 project budget, the winner will be expected to deliver drawings for an original design for city staff and council to consider.

“We’ve looked for if there’s sort of a pre-packaged urinal that we could purchase and install downtown. That doesn’t seem to exist (to) meet our needs, so now we’re looking at what sort of ideas are out there,” Josephson said.

While she anticipates questions about what the urinals could look like and where they could be located, she stressed the project is simply in the exploration phase right now.

“But I can imagine that anyone out there that has had to mop urine from their doorway will tell you that we do need to continue looking for some options.”

The city has been setting out two portable plastic urinals on downtown streets from Thursday through Saturday nights.

That number was recently increased to four in response to the increased volume.

Between July 2007 and March 2008, they saw an average of 133 users nightly, with each person depositing a pint on average, with a total of 7,000 litres collected over nine months.

“Depending on how they’re integrated and where they’re located, I’m all for the idea,” said Jaime Tiampo, president of the Bastion Square Revitalization Association, of the fixed urinal proposal.

In many European cities, standalone and paid public washroom units are the norm, he said.

“There’s lots of different ideas and good ideas that can be used and I think it can work.

“Anything that can alleviate some of the waste problems we have downtown, I’m all for investigating.”

kvass@vicnews.com