Environmentally-friendly bugs could soon be taking the urine out of the council’s toilets – and saving costly water as a result.

Water could be turned off to all the urinals if the go-ahead to spend £30,000 on a new cleaning system is given.

Officers say that the special cubes could save gallons of clean water, which is flushed through the urinals to keep them clean.

They now want to use “Eco-Bug” cubes and sprays instead as this could save up to £100,000 a year in water bills.

The cubes, developed at Cardiff University and exclusively sold by Lion Consultancy Service, are placed in each urinals. They are slowly dissolving blocks of natural bacteria, and have a fragrance added.

In places where there is a danger that children might pick the blocks up, sprays can be used, but these have a shorter lifespan.

An experiment in one of the council buildings was carried out in May in heavily-used toilets.

Photographs were taken of the inside of some of the bowls to allow the monitoring of any scale.

And officers found that the urinals, if anything, had got cleaner during the four-week period.

If the bugs are put to work each urinal will have to be rinsed with just one litre of clean water, and no cleaning agents or disinfectants should be used.

City Client officer Bill Johnson said it will be left to schools to decide if they switch to the bugs.

He said in a report to Cllr Jack Harrison, cabinet member (Community Services), who will decide on the matter on Tuesday:

“Schools must each make their own decisions on the use of ‘Eco-Bug’ systems.

“One secondary school is already using ‘Eco-Bugs’ and it is proposed to supply free cubes and sprays to two primary schools in order for them to gain experience and confidence in the system.

“Every opportunity will be taken to promote the use of the system in schools.”