A FAULTY door on Medowie’s only public toilet has prompted calls for more facilities to serve the town.
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Shoppers were among those shut out from the unisex toilet for five weeks when the automatic door broke in March. Portable toilets were made available after one of the regular shoppers Graeme Tobin alerted Port Stephens Council.
“There’s a complete lack of toilets for people who go to the shops,” he said.
Mr Tobin, who lives at Lemon Tree Passage, was pointed to the public toilet in March on one of his regular trips there.
“I asked one of the girls at Coles where she goes and she pointed across the road,” he said.
“There’s no public toilets at Coles and only one at Woolworths but no one seems to know it’s there.”
Like the council maintained facility it too is a single, unisex toilet.
“I really feel like the DA [development application] should have been approved to have more than one toilet,” Mr Tobin said.
Port Stephens councillor Geoff Dingle said the original plans for the Woolworths redevelopment had made provision for more extensive facilities within the building, not off to the side.
“When push came to shove Buildev put in a section 96 application to amend the approval so they could put more shelves in the grog shop,” he said.
“For the 9000 people who go shopping in Medowie we have one bowl, in a windowless bunker.”
The public toilet had been broken for two or three weeks before it came to Cr Dingle’s attention and the council promptly closed it when the complaint was logged on March 30.
“The Woolworths facility is only open in business hours so there would have been no facilities over Easter,” Cr Dingle said.
Port Stephens Council defended the amended plans that provided only one toilet.
“The toilets provided as part of the Woolworths development at Medowie are above and beyond requirements set out in the Building Code of Australia,” a spokesman for the council said.
The council toilet is operational once more but the spokesman said additional advice, on maintenance, was being sought from its makers, Exeloo.
“The automatic door was not always closing correctly; this has been identified as a wear and tear issue, which will now be more regularly monitored,” he said.
“[But] the draft revised Medowie planning strategy acknowledges the community desire for improved toilet facilities.”