A Bathurst man reported that he found the syringe, stuck needle-first, into the ground and it was clearly visible to passers-by.

Council director of engineering services Darren Sturgiss said it was an “unfortunate incident”.

“When council is made aware of these occurrences we can respond with trained staff and contractors available for such incident,” he said.

“Council does not keep records of sharps found, possibly though once every few weeks one is found.”

Mr Sturgiss said the library/art gallery public toilets have four individual sharps containers, including two located in the men’s, one in the women’s and one in the accessible toilets.

“All of council’s public facilities have sharps containers,” he said.

“The sharps containers are managed by council’s sanitary services contractor, who regularly empty sharps containers.

“All of council’s public toilets are cleaned at least twice per day, with an inspection to ensure sharps are not present.”