Users of Lion Green may need to hold it in a little longer after Haslemere Town Council’s plan for new public toilets on Lion Green hit a setback.

According to the town clerk Lisa O’Sullivan, the concrete base for the £135,000 toilets has been laid in the wrong place by the groundwork contractors. This means the base needs to be removed and re-laid.

The clerk also cited delayed material delivery as another factor in the hold-up.

The new completion date for the Lion Green public toilets is now expected to be in the week of May 15 – a week after the coronation.

Councillors were originally told in January the toilets block would be installed in the week commending March 6.

The need for public toilets at Lion Green has become evident in recent years as a result of the increasing number of community events on the green, such as the Haslemere Fringe Festival.

This requires temporary facilities to be bought in at great expense, with associated logistical issues, while the council says many event-goers have been guilty of urinating in the bushes on the western edge of the green.

The new Lion Green toilets, agreed by councillors last year, would not only be a provision in their own right, but have a manhole to accommodate temporary toilet discharge from rented units.

Councillors were told last year the new toilets would be "attractive in design" and located between the access to the M&S car park and the little road opposite the Apple Tree pub.

They would be of "the most ecological design possible, minimising the use of electricity and water", and automatically locked at agreed times to deter anti-social behaviour.

The total cost of the toilets block was estimated at circa-£135,000, with £100,000 coming from the council's Community Infrastructure Levy pot.