Camperdown Memorial Park: Architect’s swipe at council over toilet

Visitors of a popular park and continuing to have to cross their legs as the saga over the building a public toilet shows no sign of ending. Now, the architect asked to draw up plans, has had his say …

The architect behind a suburban loo kicking up a stink in the inner west has waded into the furore, calling his local council’s inability to build a humble dunny in three years “madness”.

The proposed toilet block at Camperdown Memorial Rest Park has been on the Inner West Council agenda, and in its budget, since 2018.

In the time it has been left on the backburner the council has completed a $40 million aquatic centre redevelopment.

Shaun Carter’s firm Carter Williamson Architects was first approached to complete it that year before it was flushed away by the council over concerns they would go over budget.

Mr Carter, who is also an inner west ratepayer, has hit out at the council he described as “crazy” and claims the council knows it cannot be built for the $500,000 they are still proposing.

What could have been. An artist's impression of the toilets that were set to be built at Camperdown Memorial Rest Park. Picture: Carter Williamson Architects

“It’s like the definition of madness,” he said.

“Same budget, same brief, no learning or consideration from what happened with us.

“It will be $75,000 to $100,000 to do leg work again … if you put that money to us a few years ago it would have been built by now.”

Mr Carter, the former president of the NSW branch of the Australian Institute of Architects, said his company’s design was now “ironically” in contention to win an award for best unbuilt project.

His design was drawn up, he said, and was so realistic because his company would only have done it knowing the project was about to start.

Architect Shaun Carter. Picture: Britta Campion

Instead, their plans were sent down the gurgler by council who then had to fork out $70,000 of public money on the failed bid.

Mr Carter said the situation raised questions about whether ratepayer funds were going to waste at the council.

“No part of the process is smart, even how they formed the budget in the first place,” he said.

“They are resorting to exactly same process as before, it's mind-numbing, you can see how people get really upset with local government.

“You either start with a camel and end up with a horse or you get a person at council who gets it over the line but that is not common.

“It’s mad.”

The loo-less park in Camperdown. Picture: Monique Harmer

Greens councillor Louise Steer has been lobbying for the loos since 2018 and previously said the council could build multimillion facilities but “building a toilet block seems to be beyond (our) powers”.

A spokeswoman said it would still be able to complete the plans for $500,000.

“Designs were developed for the project, however the designs did not meet the requirements of the brief including the project budget,” she said.

“The architect was not able to resolve the designs to council’s satisfaction and was advised in late 2020 that Council would not be proceeding with the designs.”