THE troubled redevelopment of South Beach changing rooms took a nasty twist when the temporary toilets overflowed last Friday during the height of summer.
A council spokesperson said the overflow was caused by people flushing all manner of “foreign materials” down the dunnies including balloons, baby wipes and even a carton of chips.
“The City of Fremantle has responded to overflowing of South Beach toilets by increasing preventative pumping to every second day,” said a council spokesperson.
“The city called in a plumber as soon as it was aware of the overflow issue who pulled apart the system and installed a new pump.
“The plumber will continue to regularly check the toilets for foreign objects during the busy holiday period. The city has also ordered larger capacity pumps which should arrive later in the month. As well as erecting signs to remind people not to flush foreign objects down the toilet, the city will also be improving landscaping and fencing around the demolition site.”
Council demolished the original changing rooms and toilet block in August last year and planned to build a new one, but that’s been delayed after a consultant estimated the rebuild would cost $2.18M. Council had budgeted up to $1.9M and are now looking at an alternative design. After demolition, council installed temporary toilets with disabled access, close to the South Beach Cafe.
How many Councils around Australia have appointed consultants for public toilets? Why is it that every Council needs to appoint a consultant or get an architect at exorbitant cost to design another toilet block that costs ratepayers a squillion dollars each and every time. Why can’t someone just call another council and ask for their plans and costs and be done with it. The toilet block on the beach at Esperance is an example of the best design I have seen to anywhere is Australia and should just be a set design.