Family-friendly design for Thames' public toilets

Work has begun (off-site) on the soon-to-be-installed toilets for Thames' Porritt Park, with a design that has even included psychological crime prevention and more practical family-friendly design principles.

For example, the new toilets will be installed closer to the main playground, with three unisex stalls that open on the footpath side of the building and two more unisex stalls that open directly into the playground. That means children will not have to go outside the fenced area of the playground to use the toilets, a comfort for parents who have more than one child to watch.

In addition, when you open any of the stall doors, you'll be able to see the whole inside area at a glance, which will make many of our international tourists feel safer, according to our research into CPTED - Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design.

There will also be a portico, which is a kind of porch that we're putting in over the L-shaped toilet block, so that if you've stopped your car and have to wait, you'll have cover from the rain, or on hot summer days, shade from the sun.

The need to upgrade the facilities at this time gave us the opportunity to make sure two of the five stalls meet our new disability standards, and parents will be pleased that one of those will incorporate a nappy-changing station.

We will lock some of the stalls at night, but leave at least one of the road-side stalls open 24-hours.

The new toilets are being constructed by Permacrete, whose units have impressed us with their design, attention to detail and small footprint. We already use one of their units at our cemetery in Totara.

We also saved costs by recycling an existing design and supplied Permacrete with a list of locally approved sub-contractors who have also now been appointed.

This project is yet another result of Council's focus on working with local Police on crime prevention issues, working with the community on our new Disability Strategy and with the Thames Community Board on its vision for the future of Thames' urban design.

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