A Kingborough council candidate is pushing for overnight access to public toilets at Kingston Beach after a local resident reported people regularly defecating on the sand.
Will Perry, who is running for councillor and deputy mayor of Kingborough, said a resident who walks the beach every morning told him they had seen dozens of people relieving themselves there.
The resident had raised the issue with two sitting councillors.
“He had approached a couple of existing councillors with the issue and was ignored and sort of laughed off,” Perry told Pulse.
Perry said the problem appears to be worst during summer when campervan travellers park near the beach overnight and find the toilet blocks locked.
He is proposing two simple fixes – leaving one toilet cubicle unlocked overnight or using QR code technology already in use by other Tasmanian councils, that lets people scan in and unlock cubicles outside normal hours.
“It should be a number one priority providing suitable access to public toilets,” Perry said.
“Well, number two technically.”
Acting mayor Christian Street said the toilets were locked overnight for good reason.
“Kingborough Council locks the Kingston Beach public toilets overnight due to ongoing issues with vandalism and noise from late-night activity, including doors being repeatedly slammed,” Street said.
“Vandalism alone costs ratepayers tens of thousands of dollars each year in repairs.”
Street said a public toilet at Christopher Johnson Park remains open around the clock for residents and visitors.
Kingston Beach toilets are closed at 9pm and are re-opened from 4:30am.
“CCTV operates in the area at the Kingston Beach toilet facility to help deter anti-social behaviour and protect the area,” Street said.
On the QR code idea, Street said council would “consider the QR system in the future, however it is not a current priority.”
Kingborough councillor Aldo Antolli said locking toilets overnight was common across many councils.
“It costs us a fortune to constantly fix these vandalised toilets and that’s ratepayer money,” Antolli said.
But he didn’t dismiss the concerns.
“Ideally, I would love the toilets to be accessible 24/7 so that if anyone is walking the beach, jogging that night and they need to go for a tinkle, it’s there,” he said.
Antolli said if there was enough community pressure, council could put forward a motion and vote on the matter.
“The council is always attentive to community sentiment, so if there was enough of an uproar, it would definitely, we would definitely look at it,” he said.
Perry said the issue reflects a broader pattern of residents feeling unheard by their local representatives.
The Howden resident, who owns local business Choice Logistics Tasmania, said his campaign is focused on fixing the council’s finances, improving Kingborough’s planning reputation and giving regional communities a fairer say.
“I feel as if the regional communities in Kingborough have lacked a voice for some time now and they get left out of decision-making and funding,” he said.
