Whitehouse Park is the first of Ipswich’s parks to get brand new toilet facilities that have disabled access and baby-changing facilities. As well as providing improved facilities, these quality toilets are designed to be much better for the environment. They do not need to be connected to mains water, sewerage or electricity as they use solar power (with battery back-up) to provide lighting and with hand sanitiser as an alternative to handwashing.
This is the first of four sets of composting toilets, with more to follow in Murray Road Recreation Ground and then in Castle Hill Park and Dumbarton Road Recreation Ground. These new toilets will reduce the Council’s carbon emissions by 1.48 tonnes CO2e per year, which is equivalent to the carbon capture of 75 mature trees.
Councillor Phil Smart, Ipswich Borough Council Portfolio Holder for Parks, says:
“Access to quality public toilets is something that we know is important to park visitors and rather than close the toilets in our parks as other councils are doing, by replacing existing facilities with new environmentally friendly composting toilets we will be improving the visitor experience while ensuring that energy and water usage is reduced in line with our wider climate change strategy. Similar toilets are already in use at some of the Council’s allotment sites and we know they will be a great addition to our parks.”
