MALLE STRAND: As a child in the 1950s and 60s, my parents instilled in me three things that, despite my age-impaired memory, have stuck with me:
1) Go to the dentist regularly, no matter how poor you are. My parents had lost teeth.
2) Evening coffee is not a main meal. We were 12 siblings.
3) Never piss in the fjord. After all, there are other people than you who bathe.
I have since tried to comply with all three rules, even if it is sometimes difficult to comply with commandment number two.
We lived in Thy just a hundred meters from the Limfjord and swam several times a day. When I had to pee, I went up to the beach and did it in a bush. When I needed something bigger, I ran home and fixed it. What others did, I have no idea.
Since then – around 1970 – the municipality bought a nice piece of land down to the fjord right nearby. Tables and benches, a bathing jetty, fire pit for barbecues, a pétanque court, two handball goals were set up and a small toilet shed was built here.
This beautiful spot immediately became an excursion destination for bathers from near and far, pensioners with packed lunches, local daycare and kindergarten children, schoolchildren and people who just want to relax and enjoy nature and the view of Mors.
Since then, the site has also been extensively used by surfers and long-distance kayakers.
Malle Strand – that’s the name of the place – is, in short, a favorite and well-visited haven for young and old in the summer.
Now the municipal council in Thisted Municipality has decided, in all its wisdom, that the small toilet building on Malle Strand must be saved along with around 20 other public toilet buildings around Thy. The saving by closing the toilet on Malle Strand is DKK 18,378 annually. The total savings on all toilet buildings is around one million kroner.
Where and how does the wise municipal council intend for the many visitors to Malle Strand to take care of their needs? Boys and grown men may need to find a bush when they have to pee. But what regarding the women? Not to mention what both men and women have to do when they go to the pool.
Should it also take place outside among the bushes? Because when you have to, you have to.
I can imagine that the problem is more or less the same in all the other places where the municipal council wants to save the toilet away. Many of the toilets are located – like the one on Malle Strand – in well-visited places in the lovely Thyland countryside.
Thisted Municipality otherwise markets itself to a large extent and quite understandably on the fantastic nature with the sea on one side and the Limfjord on the other. It is obviously something that appeals to both tourists and potential migrants.
Against this background, it is quite paltry that the municipal council cannot allocate one million kroner annually to operate and maintain the existing public toilets around the municipality.
In recent years, the municipality has launched some prestigious projects that are far, far more expensive to operate than the toilets that are now being closed down. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with prestige projects, but surely it shouldn’t be at the expense of everything else?
Last year, the local savings bank had a record profit of many, many, many millions….following tax. Novo Nordisk also has record profits. Here we are talking regarding many, many billions… also following tax. And the richest get tax breaks. But that has nothing to do with closing public toilets. Or what?
Closing public toilets is like peeing your pants. One is almost tempted to rewrite the last stanzas of the song “Long higher mountains..” to:
And then in poverty we have driven it far
When the lokum burns, we can’t get bad!
2024-04-08 13:58:45
#Reader #municipality #save #toilets #pretty #meager
