Friends of Newcastle Ocean Baths group says covering open-air change rooms 'nonsensical'

Newcastle council on September 26 appointed a principal design consultant for the second stage of the Newcastle Ocean Baths upgrade, which will focus on the pavilion.

Much of the council meeting debate centred around a user needs analysis completed in May which included an option for a second storey and said retaining open-air change rooms had a "higher crime risk... due to the ability to access the area undetected after hours".

"Open-air facilities have no means of controlling/detecting or inhibiting the use of drones, meaning patrons within the change rooms are at risk of being targeted for unauthorised surveillance," the analysis said.

The Friends of Newcastle Ocean Baths said issues raised at the council meeting about the analysis "truly represent the swimming community concerns".

"The claim that drones will breach the privacy of users if the open-air change rooms are retained is nonsensical," Friends of Newcastle Ocean Baths president Peter Wickham said.

"The desire for people to retain their modesty is not new and predates drones.

"This has been achieved for the past century by providing private change cubicles that, until the renovations of 2007, were covered with a roof.

"Reinstatement of the roof to the existing change cubicles will allow people to change without the possibility of being exposed to drones."

The group wrote to the council on September 14 asking about the advice the council received regarding drones.

They also asked if any work had been done to adjust the roof geometry to reduce the ability of a drone to see into the changing area.

City of Newcastle said it applied Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles to all projects in the public domain, "forming part of a best-practice approach for infrastructure delivery, and focusing on prevention of crime".

"City of Newcastle (CN) is continuing to engage with the community on the Newcastle Ocean Baths stage 2 upgrade, including regular communication with and feedback from our Community Reference Group (CRG)," a council spokesperson said.

"CN understands that some members of the community value the existing open-air changerooms, however, based on CPTED advice, the existing layout, which includes no coverage over the changerooms, is not suitable for modern facilities.

"The CRG, which includes a representative of Friends of Newcastle Ocean Baths, has been briefed on the User Needs Analysis, which was made available during the community consultation phase for the project, and remains publicly accessible on CN's website.

"CN has appointed an experienced Principal Design Consultant to design Stage 2 of the Project and will investigate the feasibility of incorporating open-air amenity through the design process subject to meeting CPTED requirements.

"The CRG will continue to be briefed and there will be further opportunity for broad community consultation."

Mr Wickham said the baths user group preferred the open-air change rooms to closed facilities at other beachside locations.

"One only has to compare the damp change rooms at the likes of Bar Beach, Merewether Ocean Baths and surf house with the light and airy change rooms at Newcastle Ocean Baths to understand why there is such strong public support to retain the existing design," he said.

He said he did not believe a desire to reduce vandalism justified removing the open-air change rooms "that Novocastrians have enjoyed for a century".

"Council needs to understand that there is extremely strong support among users for keeping the open-air change rooms and we believe that any problems with their retention can be easily mitigated," he said.

Mr Wickham said the group had spoken with Sutherland council, which has two open air change room facilities and manages drone activity with signage and blitzes.

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