Sydney, April 10 (People’s Daily Online Australia) -- New public toilets will be installed at 15 locations across city streets and parks under a City of Sydney plan to provide more high-quality, accessible public amenities.

Many of the new facilities will be on busy retail streets making these areas more appealing and convenient for shoppers, especially those with small children.

The public toilet strategy adopted by the City of Sydney will also increase the number of public toilets in suburbs across the local government area, as well as major parks.

The strategy recommends establishing a voluntary scheme to encourage Sydney retailers, cafes and other businesses to open their toilets, as happens in many overseas cities, and display signs stating toilets are for public use.

Following a trial, fees to use JCDecaux automated public toilets have been scrapped and all City of Sydney public toilets are to be free.

The City operates about half of the local government area’s 117 public toilet facilities, with the remainder provided by shopping centres and government agencies, including the Royal Botanic Gardens and RailCorp.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the strategy and action plan were another important step to improve the liveability and amenity of the city.

“This means cleaner and more easily accessible public toilets, especially in areas that don’t currently have facilities that are readily available,” the Lord Mayor said.

Implementing the plan is estimated to cost $8.26 million, including around $6 million for new facilities and $1 million for the demolition and adaptive reuse of five redundant toilet facilities.