Dive centre owner refuses council request to open her business’s toilets for public marina usage

A Glenelg business owner is fighting a council order to let nearby boat owners use her toilets – warning other “unsavoury” people could endanger customers.

Holdfast Bay Council is demanding that Adelaide Scuba Dive owner Lissi Whyte open up the toilets at her business for public use. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

A diving centre operator is fighting demands to open her toilets to the public, fearing it will attract sexual predators.

Holdfast Bay Council has threatened legal action against Adelaide Scuba owner Lissi Whyte if she does not make the facilities in her Glenelg North complex available to the public and owners of boats in a nearby marina.

The male and female toilets are located at the rear of the building near an indoor pool used to train children during school holidays.

The pool is separated by a door which remains unlocked to enable the children, teenagers and women to use the toilet during scuba diving classes

The council has told Ms Whyte it will seek court orders forcing her to comply to an agreement to have public toilets in her building when the Holdfast Quays Marina was first developed in the Patawalonga Basin 20 years ago.

Ms Whyte, who bought the diving centre three years ago, is refusing to comply, saying she would rather close the business rather than put her customers at risk.

Ms Whyte, who bought the diving centre three years ago, is refusing to comply, saying she would rather close the business rather than put her customers at risk. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

“I am not going to do it,” she said. “I can’t believe, in 2021, that a council would be trying to expose children, teenagers and women to danger by forcing me to open up my toilets for public use.

“Anyone will just be able to walk in. Drug users, rapists, paedophiles. All kinds of unsavoury people.”

The dispute flared following complaints from the Holdfast Quays Marina Association, which represents the owners of 117 vessels berthed near Ms White’s diving centre who had used swipe cards to access its toilets for two decades.

The toilets, near an indoor pool at the business. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

Ms Whyte removed the electronic lock in late 2019, prompting the association to ask council staff to order her to restore access to members.

“The council sent me two letters and then … I got a lawyer’s letter telling me they will take me to court if I don’t do it,” she said. “If the association wants toilets, then it should work with the council to put some in. All they are trying to do is avoid having to use the toilets on their boats while they are in the marina so they don’t fill up their waste tanks.”

The Holdfast Quays Marina Association said the provision of toilets was a condition for the development of the marina, made in 2000. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

The association’s chairman, Russell Wood, told its annual general meeting last November that permission to put toilets on a floating pontoon had been refused by Holdfast Bay Council. Portable toilets had been installed instead.

“Members and tenants have, for all but the last 10 months of the previous 20 years, enjoyed the use of ablution facilities provided for the use of marina patrons and contained within the (diving centre) building,” he said. “The provision of those facilities was a condition for the development of the marina, slipway and related facilities in 2000.”

Mr Wood said all “original and future owners” were bound to the agreement — signed when the building containing Ms Whyte’s diving centre was approved as part of the marina.

“Unfortunately, the association is the meat in the sandwich and can only rely on the parties involved acting responsibly and in accordance with longstanding arrangements,” he said.

A City of Holdfast Bay spokesperson said it was enforcing a “binding land management agreement which has been in place since the building was constructed, that requires the toilets to be accessible to the public when the dive shop is trading”.

“No formal legal action has been taken, and we are in ongoing discussions with the owner about their concerns,” she said.