To Wee or not to Wee

04 Dec To Wee or not to Wee

Dear Here to Help,

I spend a lot of time in Islington Park, next to Throsby Creek. It has great facilities – an oval, a playground, covered picnic tables, bbqs, bubblers. But no toilets!

Most of the older parks in Newcastle have toilets, but not the newer ones. On the other hand, Lake Macquarie is building new toilet blocks in its parks. Surely, I can’t be the only person who takes the family along for a picnic, use the playground and bubblers, then goes looking for a toilet?

It certainly is frustrating, not to mention uncomfortable, when you need a toilet and can’t find one.

The question of whether, and what, public facilities to build, service and maintain, is one for Council in its budgeting and forward-planning process. You can contact Council here to input to decisions that concern you.

Council states, on its website, “the provision of public toilets is determined through needs analysis, the propensity for vandalism and the availability of required utilities. Generally public toilets are provided at higher use parks that contain multiple recreational opportunities. Council has over 1000 playgrounds throughout the LGA. Unfortunately, funds are not available to install, maintain and service public toilets for every playground location.”

For more information about Newcastle City Council parks and facilities, and exactly what is available at each park, here are some helpful links
• Public Toilet Map – be aware that some of these are on private property and closed outside business hours
• Playgrounds and Parks
• Sportsgrounds and Facilities
• Find my nearest library, pool, public toilet, cultural point of interest, community or sporting facility, park, parking station, school, hospital, cemetery or even the weather, simply enter your address

This article comes from my column entitled “Here to Help” in Hunter Local, December 2023. If you have an everyday problem just begging for a simple, real world solution, send it to “Here to Help” and let’s see what we can achieve.

Elaine Abery has a closet full of great ideas and empowering solutions. She’s also the Director of Unravelling Red Tape, a company dedicated to helping everyday people, not-for-profits and companies change the world through improved decision-making and legislation.