Superloo stay ‘proved beyond reasonable doubt’

ENNIS Town Council has been asked to consider locking its superloos at night, after a county councillor proved any person could use them for an overnight stay.

 

The council is insisting it has no evidence of any parties using public toilets in the town as accommodation, despite an exercise conducted by Councillor Brian Meaney on Thursday night last.

Stating its formal position remains unchanged, the council confirmed it had already been in contact with the contractors, JC Decaux, before Councillor Meaney’s experiment, to determine what arrangements might prevent any misuse and deliberate tampering of the unit.

Councillor Meaney carried out his experiment last week shortly after a vigil was held to mark the recent death of homeless man Josef Pavelka. Several weeks ago, it was stated at a district court hearing that he and his friend were sleeping in a public toilet.

The Clare Champion, at Councillor Meaney’s request, noted him entering the superloo in the Ennis Market at 9.22pm on Thursday last. An alarm sounded after 18 minutes and the door opened two minutes later at 9.42pm.

Councillor Meaney re-entered and held the door, stopping it from re-opening 20 minutes later. There were three 30-second alarms, which went off after 30-second intervals. The door remained shut and didn’t reopen 20, 40 or 60 minutes later. No further alarms went off that would disturb anyone inside the toilets. The automated cleaning and disinfections only started after Councillor Meaney left the toilet at 10.50pm.

Mr Meaney claimed this “proved beyond any reasonable doubt” that a person could stay overnight there.
Councillor Meaney said, “The superloos are supposed to be tamper-proof and have fail-safe systems that only allow users of the toilets remain in them for periods no longer than 20 minutes. From my experience, it is entirely plausible that these toilets could have been used as shelters for prolonged periods,” he said.

Ennis town manager Ger Dollard reiterated the position as outlined by the council recently still holds.

“Ennis Town Council has no evidence of any parties using public toilets in Ennis as accommodation facilities. Having checked with the gardaí, a similar view has been expressed. Furthermore, the company contracted to maintain the public toilets says there is no evidence to suggest that the toilets are being used in such a manner.”

Mr Dollard added, “The situation as outlined by Councillor Meaney also accords with what the operator had previously indicated to Ennis Town Council – if persons were to ignore a loud siren alarm and deliberately interfere with the door mechanism to prevent the door opening that a person could remain in the unit.”