Open-air urinals to provide much needed relief

The City of Sydney will trial open-air urinals in an attempt to curb drunken men urinating in front of homes and businesses at the weekend.

The portable toilets will be placed around Kings Cross and Oxford Street on Friday and Saturday nights for a month, beginning tomorrow.

Council’s Late Night Economy Manager Suzie Matthews said the urinals are being trialed as “part of a range of measures to improve safety, assist people in getting home after a night out and to help keep the city clean.

Ms Matthews said the locations were carefully chosen and were already replicated in other cites such as London and Amsterdam.

“Residents have been complaining for years about public urination on their doorstops, in driveways and on house and building walls,” she said.

“Locations were chosen based on where we were getting the most complaints from and on anecdotal evidence and they are Fitzroy Gardens, Springfield Mall and Roslyn Plaza in Kings Cross and in Oxford Square.”

But the idea is not a new one—Tom Bass’s fountain has been known as The Urinal since the satirists from the infamous magazine Oz were photographed alongside the sculpture pretending to use it as a urinal.

Ms Matthews said charges for offensive conduct has increased by 30 per cent over the last two years and the public urinals will act as a buffer to prevent offensive behaviour continuing to rise.

“This is a problem we need the Police to manage with us and we are working closely with them,” Ms Matthews said.

“The city faces huge clean up bills after each weekend and cleaning-up this disgusting mess costs ratepayers more than $7 million a year.”

But President of Potts Point and Kings Cross Heritage Conservation Society, Andrew Woodhouse, has condemned Council’s decision, saying Kings Cross is the “toilet bowl of Sydney because of its ever-expanding beer barns”.

“They (urinals) are visually offensive and will only add to clean up costs without reducing them one single cent,” he said.

“Council will still need to scrub down streets with disinfectant each weekend to eliminate blood and vomit.”

Mr Woodhouse said Council should fix the current public toilets and change planning laws to provide adequate toilets within venues.

A Kings Cross bar staff member said that although he believed it was a good idea, outdoor seating at the Sugarmill Hotel will look directly on to the urinals.

“The idea is good in theory but if you’re sitting at Sugarmill, customers will look directly on to these portable urinals,” he said.

“That said, men are always urinating on the floor after they’ve been drinking- it’s just disgusting.”

The urinals will be installed at night and removed each Saturday and Sunday morning for the duration of the trial.

by Sophie Cousins