Public Toilet update - our concerns ignored!

Last year we were all taken by surprise to learn that our local CoPP Council were planning to build a new public toilet less than 20m from our school driveway, on Parks Victoria land adjacent to Fitzroy St. This proposal involved zero consultation from Council with the school and absolutely no consideration of our school community and the young children who attend.

With serious concerns about the facility attracting well-known anti-social behaviours and other impacts on amenity, our community quickly rallied a petition with over 1,300 signatures to present to Council. We even held an amazing protest covered by Channel 9.

Despite this and strongly worded opposition to the toilet location from our State Member for Albert Park, Martin Foley, and Federal Member for Macnamara Josh Burns - CoPP Council members voted to go ahead.

We don’t oppose public toilets for Fitzroy St, but believe an alternative site would be more suitable. The Council have considered 18 different sites over the last 14yrs!

Earlier this month Council confirmed:

• Planning for the complexities of sewer connections which require digging 18m under Fitzroy St, along with approvals from Melb Water/PTV/VicRoads is progressing.
• The costings are not yet finalised, but budgeted at $600k to accomodate the complex issues above (note other new toilets in CoPP cost under $250k where sewer services are more readily available!)
• In a grand concession to our concerns they have moved it further North…. 20 metres!
• They currently expect the construction to proceed in the second half of 2023 and to be completed by the end of the year.

School council is putting together a bigger campaign to fight this odious proposal, and we need your help! If you have any ideas or skills, or just want to be a part of the team drop us an email:

dunniesaintfunny@gmail.com

Talents needed include any parents with comms/pr, media contacts, graphic design, corflute & flyer print or legal (planning) skills. 

Even if you do not have these skills, we require parents and carers who are unhappy about this plan and committed to helping out. We are especially keen for parents willing to attend CoPP Council meetings to ask questions and communicate the school community's concerns with every aspect of their plan.

We encourage concerned parents to register to speak/ask a question at all of the upcoming CoPP Council meetings to continually urge the councillors to rethink this poor decision. You can attend and speak in person or online and we are happy to brief you in advance - we just need lots of volunteers to get involved and send a strong message.

Details of the upcoming Council meetings can be found here and the next few meetings are;

• Wednesday 7 June, 6:30pm at St Kilda Town Hall
• Wednesday 21 June, 6:30pm at St Kilda Town Hall
• Wednesday 5 July, 6:30pm at Port Melbourne Town Hall
• Wednesday 19 July, 6:30pm at St Kilda Town Hall

Local residents can register to speak online at https://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/about-the-council/council-meetings/request-to-speak-at-a-council-meeting and we encourage as many parents and carers as possible to do this. Online registrations to speak close at 4pm on the day of the meeting.  Alternatively, if you are attending the meeting in person, manual registration forms will be provided upon entry to the Town Hall.

We are confident that, with enough community support, we can succeed in stopping this project and keeping our children safer at school.

Dave Williams

School Councillor