A NATURIST has won his fight to sunbathe naked after it has been agreed a new school will have frosted windows installed.
Council bosses in Arbroath, Angus, unanimously agreed to the move after a request from retired local, Antoni Bogulak.
He told a committee meeting he wanted to continue to “sunbathe in the buff” but didn’t want to cause offence to pupils or staff at neighbouring Muirfield Primary School, which is to get a new £8.7m building.
The school will swap places with its playing fields as part of the Arbroath Schools Project.
However, 74-year-old Bogulak, who lives near to the playing field, raised concerns with councillors at the committee meeting that he would no longer be able to relax nude in his garden as one of the windows in the school may overlook it.
Mr Bogulak said: “I have been a naturist for 40 years and if this one window is in the line of sight of my garden then it will affect my ability to occasionally sunbathe in the buff.
“I have no need to cause offence so I would have no option but to stop being a naturist.
“It’s something I enjoy. If I can lie in the sun for an hour with no clothes on, it’s better than lying in a tight swimming costume.”
The school development is part of a multimillion-pound project to rebuild some of the town’s ageing primaries and will lead to a fall in the school’s capacity from 434 pupils to 335.
The plans are part of the second phase of the project, following the replacement of Timmergreens and Warddykes schools which opened last year.
Councillors accepted Mr Bogulak’s fears and attached a condition that the window in question, which would be positioned in the stairwell of school, be frosted over.
The naturist lives with his wife, who he said does not share his appetite for going naked, and added that his objection was “just about privacy”.
“I wouldn’t want to worry anyone,” he said. “But I obviously don’t want kids to be able to see through it and say ‘what’s that man doing?’
“It’s not my intention to scare parents or anyone. I’m not particularly happy with where the school is going in general but I also don’t want to have to stop being a naturist.”
Public nudity, knowns as a naturism, is not illegal in Scotland or any other part of the United Kingdom.
However naturists can be charged with a public disorder offence if they have been deemed to be deliberately confrontational or fail to cover up if requested to do so by the police or other officials.
The Scottish Outdoor Naturist Club has been promoting naturism – known formerly as nudism – since 1938.
It was founded on Fenwick Moor, near Glasgow, however the club moved to its current base, on Inchmurrin island in Loch Lomond, a decade later and has remained there since.
One of the most infamous naturists, Stephen Gough, known as the Naked Rambler, has spent much of the last decade behind bars for breaching for over his refusal to wear clothes.
However, British Naturism, the UK national Naturist organisation, has said previously that he was not a member and does not follow their code of conduct.
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