While staff were informed only five members of the public would attend the meeting, Mr Clark, who was not a part of the meeting, understood about 70 people were present.
The meeting was held by the council group manager for leisure and recreation Steve Gibling and aquatic services manager Stephen Cook.
Speaking to the Otago Daily Times, Mr Clark said members of the public had raised the issues with him about the women’s toilets and changing areas at Splash Palace, although he was unsure if the people who raised these issues were the same who attended the meeting, a topic he raised during last week’s infrastructure committee meeting.
"We’ve had some ongoing issues raised about the, I guess, the rights of women," he said.
"The days of our world being purely male and female have significantly changed ... We’re dealing with that, about how we can assure safety for all the different groups that want to use our facilities," he said.
Mr Clark said it was important all members of the community felt safe and had their needs met.
"It’s easy to say group A can go in and blend in with group B, but sometimes we lose sight of the fact that group B have their own needs that are unique to them.
"And so we’ve got to balance that out."
Mr Gibling said yesterday’s meeting was arranged after discussions with the representative of a public group over their concerns regarding Splash Palace changing areas.
"We understood and were advised that we would be meeting with a group of five people to discuss this and gather their feedback."
Mr Gibling said the concerns shared were not taken lightly, and the council would now deal with these in a respectful and considerate manner to protect all people’s rights and safety.
"We are taking immediate actions where possible, such as reviewing facility signage, while working towards a longer term solution for our changing spaces."
Mr Gibling said the council did not currently have a policy in place that directly addressed the use of changing spaces and gender.
"Our current practice is guided by the law and human rights, which state it is unlawful to discriminate based on sex, gender or sexual orientation.
"We recognise that our policies have not kept pace with changes in our community and we have been working through the process of developing a policy to ensure all people feel safe and welcome at our facility."
All pool visitors were able to access the "family changing area", where there were five individual private cubicles, and both female and male change areas included individual private cubicles, Mr Gibling said.
Chroma the LGBTQIA+ Initiative for Southland secretary Bethany Dussil-Brookes said the organisation had not been made aware of the meeting, but the council had been working with Chroma towards inclusive spaces.
A paper on the issue will be discussed at the council’s community wellbeing committee meeting on June 13.
