The men's urinals are shaped as orchids and hollyhocks, while the basins in the ladies are shaped as huge flowers.

"They must be the most expensive urinals in the country," said Dobbies chief executive James Barnes.

"There is nothing quite like them anywhere else," said Dobbies construction development manager David Clark.

Barton Grange's were supplied by a San Francisco-based artist called Clark Sorensen. They were installed in early 2008 ready for the garden centre opening on 26 March 2008. They received a lot of publicity at the time in the trade press, regional TV, radio and press, and even The Sun newspaper.

But garden writer Peter Seabrook, who was at the opening by Princess Anne of the Barton Grange centre in Lancashire last year, said: "These toilets sound very familiar to me. Why do they do this? They could say they are unique in the south of England."

Dobbies admitted: "They are the same as Barton Grange's. But they are unique to Dobbies. We never made a big thing of them being unique to us."

 

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