Broken Hill City Council has been forced to close a local public toilet block during cleaning times to maintain staff safety.
The Council said there had been 40 incidents of discarded hypodermic needles and aggressive behaviour towards staff in the last 30 days at Council facilities, with 23 incidents reported in the last 11 days.
Council’s General Manager, Jay Nankivell, said the temporary closure of the ’roundhouse’ public toilets on the corner of Blende and Chloride Streets would help to improve staff safety.
“We ordinarily aim to keep the toilets open during cleaning for public convenience, but unfortunately things have reached a stage where we need to take extra precautionary measures to protect staff as they carry out their work,” he said.
“The toilets need to be locked during cleaning to provide a safe and secure environment for staff to undertake their work, which generally involves the removal of contaminated materials and sharps on a daily basis.”
Council will lock the toilets from 7am-8am and 12:30pm-1pm Monday to Friday, and 9am-10am Saturday and Sunday while cleaning is undertaken.
At its April Council Meeting, Council resolved to meet with health officials to find a solution to the issue of used needles littering the CBD. Mr Nankivell said initial discussions had subsequently taken place.
“We met with the Far West Local Health District (FWLHD) recently we’ve discussed the possibility removing the clean sharps dispensers from the FWLHD building on the corner of Chloride St and Crystal Lane,” he said.
“It’s something the FWLHD is looking into, and while we understand it’s not a solution to the problem of drug use, we believe it would alleviate the issue of discarded needles littering the busiest area of the city.”
