Burnside Council could spend $195K on new toilets to stamp out gay beat in local park
A Burnside Council toilet block long notorious as a gay beat and drug hotspot may be demolished in a bid to curb “various acts of anti-social behaviour to gross indecency”.
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A Burnside toilet block long notorious as a gay beat may be demolished in a bid to curb anti-social behaviour.
Burnside Council will consider spending $195,000 on two automated toilets at Penfold Park, Magill, in the hope they will reduce incidents of gay sex, lewd graffiti, drug deals and dumped syringes, which have been occurring at the park since at least 2004.
Police have visited the park 10 times since July 1 last year following complaints of “various acts of anti-social behaviour to gross indecency, all regarding men and sexual-like behaviour”.
“This number only reflects the amount of times members of the public have called police to attend the park but undoubtedly this sort of behaviour is happening a lot more than the 10 times,” police told the council in a recent report.
There were also 18 calls to police in 2017/18, 95 per cent of those relating to men loitering in and around the toilets.
However, “many more incidents go unreported”, police said, and patrols had been paying the park “particular attention” since July.
There had also been five complaints to the council from members of the public in 2018 about men meeting at the toilets, graffiti and general uncleanliness, including adult underwear in the rubbish bin.
Residents have described it as a “abysmal” and complained they felt unsafe and uncomfortable visiting the park, particularly with children.
The new toilets — which will be considered as part of the 2019/20 budget — could cost as much as $195,000, but would save the council $12,000 in maintenance costs.
If approved, works could begin in September.
Cr Henry Davis said it was an issue that had “plagued” his ward for a long time.
“We have the potential to extinguish it (the problem),” Cr Davis said.
However, Cr Harvey Jones said it was naive to think the problem would go away with a new toilet.
“SA Police are doing the odd patrol, but they’re not seriously trying to catch anybody,” Cr Jones said.
“It’s not hard that to think how you could entrap some of these people … if you really wanted to deal with the problem.”
Cr Lillian Henschke said it was “a lot of money for a toilet”.
Meanwhile, a wider audit of public toilets revealed a further two “at-risk” toilets which had the potential to become “the new target of anti-social behaviour”.
The report did not reveal the location of the toilets.
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