A BLOCK of public toilets in Poole, which was closed to the outrage of the community last year, will be redeveloped into a café.

The council’s plans to convert and extend the existing Baiter Park toilet building have been given planning permission.

A tendering process to obtain an occupier for the new café building will take place next.

As well as a café, the new facility will have public toilets, albeit with only two cubicles, which will be managed by the café owners.

There was much opposition to the closure of the current toilet block last year, along with others in the town. Following protests and campaigns, the council agreed to temporarily re-open the Baiter Park facilities in August – four months after they first shut.

The site currently has a mobile catering unit on a short licence.

Designs for the development show an internal seating area as well as a large external terrace.

Planning officer Helen Harris said the development would bring “essential community benefit” and be “a more aesthetically pleasing building”.

“The proposed modernised building would be a significant benefit to the whole community for both the existing, and new and future park users,” she said.

She added: “It would present a visual enhancement to the area and introduce a permanent catering facility and social environment, which it is hoped would stimulate greater community engagement for the public (as has occurred at Hamworthy Park cafe) by groups such as residents associations, sports clubs, dog walkers, cyclists, walking groups and water sport enthusiasts.”

However, the Society for Poole objected to the plans on the basis they “permanently remove eight public convenience cubicles from the public domain”.

“It is considered reasonable to expect that car parks (and bus stations) should have adequate conveniences close by and, in the case of Baiter Park, two cubicles will be inadequate,” a spokesperson for the society said.