Retailers push to flush out problem

Harding and Thornbury Chartered Accountants office administrator Tracy Taylor said it had been a problem for King William Street businesses for about seven years.

‘Apart from going out the back door and surprising people who are urinating, there is almost always a very unpleasant odour out the back and in summer it really becomes quite putrid,’ she said.

‘The defecation that I have had to deal with usually happens overnight or on weekends and is usually on our brick paved area and it is really disagreeable for the first task of a morning to be cleaning up the mess.’

Bayswater Village Traders Association chairman Greg Da Rui, who owns 777 Pharmacy in Bayswater, said businesses had been calling for something to be done to solve the ‘disgusting’ problem for years.

‘There was a trader’s group review committee at council; I sat on that, and we brought this issue up many years ago and nothing happened,’ he said. ‘The critical thing is to have a toilet at the train station.

‘Traders are really demoralised by it and shoppers are discouraged to use the village.’

The Public Transport Authority applied to upgrade and extend the Bayswater train station with councillors moving a motion in May for the changes to include a toilet, which was later removed by the Development Assessment Panel.

Councillor Chris Cornish has tabled a motion for tonight’s council meeting requesting a 21-year peppercorn lease for land needed to build a self-cleaning toilet from the PTA and, if the City gets the lease, that Council agrees to add the required $255,000 into the 2013/14 budget review.

‘In my view, providing toilet facilities for public areas is a fairly elemental requirement, so despite the cost it is something Council should consider,’ he said.

‘I’d prefer someone other than City of Bayswater ratepayers to pay for the toilet, but if no-one else is then it is something Council need to look at.’

Maylands MLA Lisa Baker said it was time the State Government met the City’s generous offer by providing a lease on the land required for the toilets.

‘Residents and shop owners are fed up in asking for help in this matter,’ she said.

‘There is no point in the City investing in self-cleaning toilets if the space is not guaranteed by the State Government.’