PUBLIC conveniences in Petersfield have received gleaming praise from the British Toilets Association. New toilets in Petersfield joined posh loos in Horndean and Grayshott by winning a five-star gold award. And East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) was also flushed with success when it scooped the 'Attendant of the Year' award for its Petersfield central car park toilets. The five-star gold awards were handed out in respect of innovative design, type of equipment, layout of each cubicle, colour scheme, the standard of hygiene provided, and the general ambience of the complete unit. Nearly 600 people attended the lav-ish awards ceremony at the National Motorcycle Museum near Birmingham and heard that 463 local authority toilets had been entered in the competition. Mark Reed, EHDC's director of operations, and building surveyor Brian Redwood were accompanied at the ceremony by Richard Earle, managing director of the council's cleaning contractors, Wessex Contracting Services of Four Marks, and two Wessex attendants, Caroline Yearwood and David Newman. For the past four years, Mr Redwood has been the officer in charge of the council's project to provide 'loos to be proud of", and the award marks a tribute to his extensive work on the subject. He carried out extensive research into finding out what equipment might be provided in a modern toilet. And it spelt the end for the white sanitary ware, stainless steel, white wall tiling and smelly cubicles. Whatever was to be provided also had to be as vandal proof as possible, but at the same time 'user friendly'. A balance needed to be struck between environmental considerations and the necessity to build as economically as possible, bearing in mind the cost of some modern expectations, said Mr Redwood. "Brian must be congratulated as he obviously got a lot of his thinking right, and the judges agreed," said Mr Reed.