Cricket Ave set to become toilet street

More than half the road on Cricket Ave will be covered with portaloos and food stalls. Photo / Sarah Ivey

A residential street behind Eden Park will be lined with portaloos and food stalls to serve crowds at Rugby World Cup matches, according to last-minute plans.

An application filed to the Rugby World Cup Authority, which has been set up to pass permits for the tournament, shows the stadium's east stands will have their own temporary entrances.

Cricket Ave will give up a footpath and more than half its road to provide for the entrances, with accompanying portaloos and other facilities.

Residents on the street had no idea about the plans until the Herald contacted them - one called the plans "pretty nasty".

The application says Eden Park's $256 million upgrade will have "issues" coping with the extra crowds seated in the temporary stands.

The internal concourse - with new food and beverage stalls and toilets - was appropriate for normal crowds but "potential pedestrian flow issues" would arise for Rugby World Cup capacity crowds, it says.

It proposes that extra entrances be put along Cricket Ave and food and beverage, toilet, merchandise, police and first aid facilities be provided "on the footpath and part of the carriageway of Cricket Ave".

A diagram in the application shows the portaloos would be put almost two-thirds of the way across the road, close to the houses on the street.

Glen Frost, a Cricket Ave resident, said it was unbelievable operators had left it so late to put the plans forward.

"They can't have miscalculated so badly that they needed to do this.

"It's one of these things they knew about six months ago but wanted to sneak it through at the end."

He said his flat "hadn't heard a thing" about the plans, which also include 24-hour rehearsals at the stadium in the lead-up to the cup.

"When you're spending $260 million you think you will at least have flushing toilets."

The portaloos would be unpleasant for residents and visitors, Mr Frost said.

"They stop kids from doing sausage sizzles in their driveway, then they put food stalls across the road."

Eden Park Neighbours Association president Mark Donnelly said portaloo doors slamming late at night would further disrupt children's sleep.

"And portaloos are a bit of a Kiwi thing. They won't be very nice [for visitors]," he added.

Eden Park Trust marketing manager Tracy Morgan said the trust would not comment while the application was before the authority.