SPENDING a penny could cost 20p from next year, under Worcester City Council plans to replace its public toilets with five-star toilets to save cash.

The council's cabinet will next week discuss proposals to cut its seven sets of loos to five in a bid to save hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Under the proposals, the toilets in Copenhagen Street and All Hallows, near South Quay, would close, while those in Angel Place, Cornmarket and Croft Road would be refurbished as 24-hour, top-notch facilities, costing 20p a visit.

Initially, Angel Place will receive a 24-hour service and if it proves a success it could spread to the other two sites.

It will include material which is easier to clean and more hard wearing than is currently in use.

Those in the Bull Ring and Gheluvelt Park would remain open and unchanged.

Councillors are seeking to save £150,000 a year and the proposed cuts would see a total saving of £173,530, plus the revenue from the sale of those sites no longer needed.

The plans were put together by Simon Geraghty, the city council's head of finance, and also propose a £50,000 grant to the cathedral to help make its temporary lavatories permanent. Mr Geraghty said: "It is a difficult task to combine proposals to deliver both an improved service and a budget saving.

"The proposed package is however a positive proposal, which will significantly improve the three most-used facilities in the city and actually raise them to a five-star standard."

He added that a consultation exercise with users of the Angel Place toilets revealed that less than five per cent were opposed to plans to pay 20p for the service.

Mr Geraghty said no jobs will be lost as a result of the plans, and recommended future park-and-ride sites include automated public conveniences - the new superloos - to avoid on-going maintenance costs.

Worcester City Council's cabinet will vote on the plans at a meeting at the Guildhall on Tuesday.