Spending a penny - Big repair bill for Tokoroa’s million dollar toilets

Thursday, 20 July 2023

Tokoroa’s multiple award-winning million-dollar public toilets are facing a million-dollar repair bill with one local councillor saying they should be knocked over to save ongoing costs.

The toilets were part of a $4 million upgrade of Leith Pl, which, due to a series of delays took more than three years to complete, and while controversial at the time, were opened to much fanfare in December 2019.

The toilets have since been plagued by constant vandalism, including the theft of toilet paper, intentional blockages, and even fires, and are now cleaned four times a day and locked at night.

But, the real problem lies underground with contractors finding the pipework connecting the toilets to the local sewerage system to be inadequate and would cost around $1 million to replace.

The repair bill comes on top of an 18.5% rates rise approved by the South Waikato District Council last month.

Councillors also agreed to put off the toilet’s repairs until next year to save further costs to ratepayers.

The five individual toilets, at Tokoroa’s main shopping precinct off State Highway 1, mark out the Southern Cross constellation and were designed by Rotorua’s DCA Architects.

The toilets won a Waikato/BOP New Zealand Institute of Architects award, and a regional award from Architectural Design New Zealand.

In February 2022, the toilets also won the Keep New Zealand Beautiful Best Loo Award.

South Waikato district councillor Hamish Daine said if he had it his way he would knock them over and build new public toilets away from the state highway and use the space for more suitable activities.

Daine said mounting maintenance costs, coupled with a massive repair bill, made the toilets uneconomical and serious questions needed to be asked about their future.

“This is a really good example of turd polishing,” he said.

“The infrastructure is below par, and the pipes are too skinny … we can spend as much time as we like cleaning them, but at the end of the day the pipes need to be replaced.

“While we might be looking at a capital cost of a million dollars, you also have to ask what the operating costs are now, and for the future.”

Daine said there were more issues than just pipes - including the toilet’s location and the use of Māori carvings, which Daine felt were inappropriate.

“Using a toilet is a private act, a discrete act, and yet here we are showcasing it to the audience on State Highway 1.

“People don’t come down here to eat their lunch or use the green space around it.”

He said the toilets were also cramped and poorly designed, especially the disabled toilet which could hardly fit a wheelchair.

Daine also questioned whether previous councils had properly consulted local iwi or the public and said past decisions made to cut costs to keep the project under budget had come back to haunt them.

The council’s head of marketing and communications, Kerry Fabrie, said construction issues made maintaining the toilets difficult.

“We have managed to mitigate design and construction flaws through a high-pressure hose of the toilets once a month … the toilets are functioning well most of the time, vandalism and user behaviour aside.”

She confirmed the million-dollar repair budget had been removed from the 2023-24 annual plan budget and “any future costs in relation to the Leith Place toilets will be considered by council and community through the long-term plan process”.