Draft Public Toilet Strategy open for consultation

The City of Ballarat has released the Draft Public Toilet Strategy for community review and feedback.

The Draft Public Toilet Strategy sets out a vision to provide high quality, inclusive and accessible public toilets that are safe, clean and cater for the needs of all residents and visitors.

It also provides a review of existing toilet facilities, including location, levels of use, access and signage, safety, overall condition, management and maintenance regimes.  

The City of Ballarat held extensive community consultation in the development of the Draft Public Toilet Strategy which has helped guide the development of a number of key recommendations.

Key recommendations of the Draft Strategy include:

• Conducting site assessments and business cases for potential new public toilets
• Exploring alternative locations for a new public toilet in the Little Bridge Street vicinity  
• Exploring opportunities to upgrade or renew existing toilets in regional townships
• Setting out Environmentally Sustainable Design principles into all new public toilets
• Improving wayfinding and signage of public toilets, including information on the City of Ballarat website showing an image of the facility, its address, opening hours and amenities
• Exploring provisions for improved hygiene, including installing hand soap dispensers in all public toilets
• Building or upgrading new ‘standard’ or ‘destination’ type public toilets with at least one toilet cubicle for anyone to use (regardless of age, ability, gender or cultural background) in addition to maintaining at least one male-only and one female-only public toilet.  

The Draft Public Toilet Strategy was also informed by engagement with key stakeholder groups as well as feedback from community consultation that was held from 22 May until 25 June 2023.  

As part of the community consultation more than 330 surveys were completed, 145 comments were made via the online interactive map, seven submissions were made, 155 people attended information sessions, 30 stakeholders attended meetings and there were 1,100 website visits.

The responses found:

• Most people prefer to use public toilets at parks or playgrounds, followed by private shopping areas and sporting venues or reserves
• Most people use a public toilet at least once a week or every few weeks
• Most people prefer single-gender toilets, followed by having no preference and, thirdly, a preference for all-gender toilets.

City of Ballarat Mayor, Cr Des Hudson thanked the community for having their say in the first round of community consultation and encouraged all residents to provide feedback on the Draft Strategy.www.mysay.ballarat.vic.gov.au/public-toilet-strategy

“The final Public Toilet Strategy will guide how the City of Ballarat plans, provides, designs and manages public toilets,” he said.

"It’s important to have your say and help shape the future of public toilet facilities right across the Ballarat municipality.”

Feedback from our community will inform the final Public Toilet Strategy which is expected to be presented to Council for consideration later this year.

Have your say on the Draft Public Toilet Strategy until 5pm, Sunday 24 September on the MySay Engagement Portal.

You can also pick-up a printed copy of the survey at City of Ballarat sites, including Customer Service and Ballarat Libraries.