Bath Leisure Centre, naked men in ‘changing village’

[MrsSnippyPants]

Can anyone local confirm what the changing facilities are for swimming?
twitter.com/jeanhatchet/status/1082908745682829312?s=21

Considering their new facilities include a leisure pool, designed to attract children, this should be of some concern, if true.

www.better.org.uk/leisure-centre/banes/bath-sports-and-leisure-centre/swimming-pools

Now back open after it's refurbishment, Bath's leisure pool now boasts a full range of brand new play features and flume so children, big or small can splash around for many fun filled hours.

I haven't been there since my husband rescued a drowning child and the management response was full on Mr Brittas. It has been refurbished but they promptly had to close the viewing gallery due to the size of the gap in the railings which was big enough for a small child to fall through causing mothers to express concern and health and safety to get the builders back. I haven't heard if that has been resolved but one would hope so, it was a few months ago. It's definitely not my preferred swimming pool but I may go and see what it's like post refurbishment. Not before the weekend though.

As an aside, can I just applaud the wonderful Jean Hatchet? A great response from her to the irritating (male) twat.

Oh no. This is so shit
My local. This is depressing but predictable for Bath.
It's just undergone a refurb. Was a stinky, run-down, verruca-fest dump but at least we had privacy when changing.
I'm going to have to go and check this out. One of the kids was there on Saturday, but not for a changing activity.
Might send OH instead as he likes a swim. Get him to report back.
Fucking 'changing villages'. What an insulting concept, as though drying your bits off is a community activity. I don't want to change in the middle of a bloody village, I need privacy.

Sarahj
Jesus that's awful, such a horrible violation!

Cubicles are no better. Men should be out of our spaces and back into their own.
Worst fears realised about these kinds of changing arrangements.

Who is foisting this crap on us?
That's another local venue off my list.

My daughter asked why I kept checking the top of our cubicle while we were changing in cubicles next to men. Really not much better than being out in the open.

Here's the twitter thread describing one woman's discomfort and the reaction to her tweet from locals:

twitter.com/BubsandJacks/status/1082661506288885760

Its been established that a man exposing himself to a woman even in a unisex changing area is a crime. If these men know that they can be seen by women and are not making an effort to cover up then its indecent exposure and it seems like its being facilitated by Bath Leisure Centre

www.express.co.uk/news/uk/620851/Alisdair-John-Wilson-teacher-career-ruins-naked-in-changing-rooms

miri1985 wow it's pretty clear the Express feel sorry for him isn't it? Amazing that a paper run by a pornographer would react in such a way

Interesting to note, that someone on a Twitter post tried to contact Karen Walker, the councillor who would be in charge of the reopening ceremony at the leisure centre, and the result was that the tweet was deleted.
I certainly wouldn't go to any leisure centre which had mixed changing and showering facilities.

Indecent exposure - the act of outraging public decency by being naked in a public place.

west-midlands.police.uk/your-options/flashing-indecent-exposure-and-sex-acts-public

Exposure offence

Difficult to prove in a mixed changing facility.

to intentionally expose their genitals and intend that someone will see them and be caused alarm or distress (section 66, Sexual Offences Act 2003)

A male user would just say that they didn't mean to cause alarm or distress, and didn't mean for anyone to see him.

There is a high bar to the (rare) use of "Outraging Public Decency". (This would be the appropriate offence for watching porn in a public place or within the view of a member of the public - but not indecent exposure.)

If you design a mixed sex space for people to get undressed right down to their birthday suits, then exhibitionists have got a "get out of jail free" card. In effect, the management are declaring "caveat emptor" if you want to use their services.

Ooh, I like Jean Hatchet
How about the “sorry my towel fell off” defence? How can we prove that perverts are getting off on flashing their balls when all spaces are unisex?
That’s the whole crux of the issue, allow penises into women only spaces and everyone’s intentions have to be scrutinised ( which is impossible)

This seems surreal. Out local authority leisure centre has a unisex changing village. But it's cubicles only. Or I have seen occasionally people will get undressed in the open area if they have their swimmers on underneath and then put their stuff in a locker. But there is no nudity. I don't even think I've seen any small children nude there (that would obviously be acceptable anyway) I'm pretty sure it would start a riot and an assault charge if a man was to walk about/shower naked especially with kids about. I am rural scotland, so maybe we are not as progressive as you southerners 😂😂

Sarahj
That's truly awful. And he did it again. And will probably keep doing it.

You're absolutely right - people changing our women only spaces into unisex spaces seem suddenly unable to acknowledge that it opens the door to perverts and predators, despite all the evidence. Even one incident is too many but they seem to think that the risk is acceptable - it's only women and children after all!

irnbruforlife if you're not as 'progressive' up in Scotland, then thank your lucky stars.

I don't see why a man's intentions in walking around a public space bollock naked are relevant. If the viewer is caused distress or offence or whatever, that's what counts surely. Like our old fave, the 'hate crime'. It's how the recipient feels about it that matters, not the feelings of the doer. Or if not, then it bloody well ought to be.

The whole thing of mixed changing is horrendous. I'd go nowhere near. And it all seems very odd when you think how sedentary lots of us are and how official policy is to get us all moving more. Then they stick naked men into the mix. No gonna encourage me.

We've had a 'changing village' at our local (large inner city) pool for about eight years. I will never heard of any problems. There are women only swimming sessions three times a week. I've always liked it as I could easily get changed with both children.

*have not will

In the Express story, the jury must have reckoned that twice without locking the door wasn’t an accident.

Oh ffs. This sounds really twattish.
What on earth was wrong with sex segregated changing rooms in the first place?

In this HSE file governing welfare at work (I assume this would include gyms and leisure centres), it clearly states that - "Separate use of changing facilities should be available to men and women"

www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg293.pdf

It would appear that there are a couple of leisure centres in Wales which have unisex changing areas, despite a petition signed by over 1000 people objecting to them.

www.cowbridge-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=123058&headline=Unisex%20changing%20rooms%20introduced%20at%20two%20local%20leisure%20centres&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2018

this won't load for me but should have pictures
pool and changing

We have a changing village with single, double and family cubicles. You shouldn't be naked anywhere outside of a cubicle, and apart from an escaped toddler, I've never seen anyone who hasn't understood this, though of course there are far more hours in the week that I'm not there than when I am.