Loo lady cheers end of movement

For six years Jean Pentelow has led a tireless campaign to give Hastings shoppers clean and handy comfort stops.
Now the 70-year-old queen of conveniences, who celebrated the opening of a new Hastings public toilet yesterday, said her long loo lobby was over.
"That's the end of my campaign at the moment," she said. "Much to council's relief."
Mrs Pentelow cut the toilet paper ribbon to open the $80,000 King St toilet yesterday morning. The single, removable loo was installed in a council carpark after a suitable permanent site couldn't be found.
Mrs Pentelow was impressed with the toilet's modern features, including an automatic flush that doesn't operate until the user has washed their hands.
"Get yourself around there, it's great fun," she said.
Mayor Lawrence Yule said the new loo looked great, and had quality fittings that would be easy to maintain. "The facility is designed so it can be easily relocated, so it can be picked up and re-sited at little cost when and if better opportunities present themselves," he said.
Mrs Pentelow began campaigning for better facilities six years ago, after concerns about the state of the Russell St toilets, which underwent a $150,000 upgrade last year.
"Let's be honest, the state it was in before, I'd be inclined to vandalise it myself," she said.
But with the opening of the new King St loo, she was ready to move on from the loo movement.
"You have to have something in life to keep you going, but after six years, I'm all toileted out," she said. "Somebody rang me up and said 'we'd like a toilet up the other end', and I said 'good, you do something about it then'."
But council staff be warned: She won't be letting the standards slip at her hard-won conveniences.
"I'll be keeping an eye on them."
Editorial, p6