NEWS DESK World first for Arthurs Seat loo A TOILET at Arthur’s Seat has won the World’s Most Accessible Toilet award. Opened in January, the toilet is designed to meet the needs of tourists with disabilities, those with mobility limitations, visitors with young children, older people and tourists from culturally diverse backgrounds. It even includes an Asian squat toilet. The award judge described the toilet as being “beautifully designed, thoroughly functional, modern and inclusive; a highly impressive addition to the destination experience. I have never seen anything quite like this accessible toilet. It’s a gold star, best practice example.” The Arthurs Seat toilet was one of 30 entries from around the world – including one where visitors can “do their business” overlooking a creek with crocodiles and an art studio where guests pull up chairs to admire the toilet doors. “The inclusion of human diversity forms the foundation of our community. Disability is not rare. It can happen to any one of us,” Mornington Peninsula Shire’s all abilities consultative committee vice-chair Karen Fankhauser said. The awards are based on research by co-founders of MyTravelResearch. com Carolyn Childs and Bronwyn White who organised the inaugural 2017 International Toilet Tourism Awards to demonstrate a link between toilets and tourism. “Great loos in tourism destinations become talking points, encourage repeat visits and can be a positive indicator of how the host community respects tourists,” Ms Childs said.
Shire urged to oppose extra boat ramp Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au RYE Community Group Alliance is urging Mornington Peninsula Shire to vote against increasing the number of boat and jet ski launching ramps at Rye. The issue will come to a head at the shire’s 17 July planning services meeting in Rosebud. Council officers have recommended the shire accept a $588,000 grant from Roads, Road Safety and Ports Minister Luke Donnellan to be given on the proviso the expansion includes a fourth boat ramp. But the alliance has urged councillors to “listen to what is being said by many in the Rye community and say no to the expansion of the Rye boat and jet ski launching facilities”. It says the existing three ramps are appropriate and that the grant was “unaccountably applied for before community consultation around the facilities and the Rye foreshore had been completed”. “Those in the Rye community who are against this proposed boat and jet ski expansion are asking councillors to please do the right thing,” chair Mechelle Cheers said. “That is, not be seduced by the grant and reject the expansion of the facilities proposed in the planning application. “It should be rejected because it is an inappropriate development for a centre of township location as well as its proximity to the pier, the effect on other beach and water users and on the marine life.”
Hazy days: The three-lane Rye boat ramp is close to the pier and foreshore recreational area. Picture: Yanni
The alliance is asking that councillors “vote to fix and reconfigure the facilities inside the current footprint but not on the eastern side using the $648,000 allocated in the 2016/2017 budget”. “We suggest the shire in consultation with the community apply for top-up funding in this year’s round of the boat safety and facilities program.” Cr Bryan Payne said the Rye community was “keen to retain three boat
ramps and not increase the number to four”. He said 80 per cent of ramp users were peninsula residents – not boaters from other suburbs – whose biggest concern was keeping the channel dredged so their boats were not damaged during launching. Because the launching ramps need repair, Ms Cheers said the alliance was “asking with some urgency that Mr Donnellan reconsider and allow
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Southern Peninsula News 11 July 2017
the shire to keep the $588,000 Rye grant despite not expanding the number of ramps” to four. Previous boater surveys point to the need to dredge the Rye boat ramp channel more regularly due to silting; provide more traffic wardens at peak times; have the three ramps reconfigured/replaced, reversing lanes reconfigured, electronic signs displaying launching waiting times and the mooring facility extended.