FOUR years after a 1000-strong petition called on Fremantle council to upgrade public toilets at South Beach they remain as third-world as ever.

Beach-goers on Sunday morning were aghast to find the men’s toilets coated with crusted-on faeces, and the floor strewn with soggy toilet paper soaked in urine. The women’s toilets didn’t fare much better according to witnesses.

• Left: The South Beach toilets last Sunday at 10am—cleaned six times a day, the council reckons.

“Only to wee,” beach regular Rosario Ianni shuddered when the Herald asked if he ever used them. Mr Ianni criticises the council for planning to spend thousands installing a basketball court at the beach, when the toilets are so sub-standard.

“They’re out of date,” he says. “They need stainless steel—that’s not hard to do nowadays—and they need the bowls stuck to the wall so the piss doesn’t go everywhere.”

Carmelo Retta recalls a day he couldn’t hold on any longer and reluctantly had to use the men’s cubicle. He says it was so revolting he couldn’t bear to touch anything so he hovered over the seat, Indian style.

Rosario Ianni, Carmelo Retta and Umberto Ditullio say the block is a disgrace. Photos by Steve Grant

“Some guy walked by and he saw me like that and he stopped—he thought I was in pain or something,” he laughs.

But he says the toilets are no laughing matter and they give the city a bad name. “The beach is so popular, so many people come here. What do they see?”

The council reckons the toilets and change rooms are cleaned six times a day. “No major upgrades are planned in the short to medium-term but minor maintenance works/removal of graffiti and responding to vandalism on a needs basis will continue,” say the council’s “tech services guys”.

by STEVE GRANT