RELEASE: Friday 9 September

Peel Street toilets to go to consultation

IMAGE: Artist’s concept drawing of a possible additional night time facility at the Peel Street toilets.

A recommendation to revamp the Peel Street toilets will go into consultation on the Long Term Plan 2018 – 2028.

Early concepts for how the toilets could be renovated to prevent vandalism and provide a facility during night time hours were presented to the Community Development committee on Wednesday.

“One option could be refurbishing the existing toilets,” says planning development group manager Nedine Thatcher-Swann,

“A cost estimate provided by a local company was around $297k, another option was to also add a night time facility for a further $81k.”

There is also the option to retain the building and modify it for another purpose.

The early designs impressed the Committee who agreed to consult on all options with the community in the next Long Term Plan budget.

Contracts and assets manager Garrett Blair says the issue of vandalism in public toilets and how to solve them have been investigated by staff since the end of last year.

A recommendation earlier this year aimed to find out if damage could be reduced by closing the worst affected toilets overnight.

The Peel Street toilets were already closed during evening hours Monday to Thursday nights, but remained open over the weekend when most of the vandalism occurred.

Results of trial night time closure of four other toilets and recommended action will come back to the Committee for decision later in the year.

In the meantime we continue to more closely monitor cleanliness and carry out a thorough cleaning schedule.

ENDS

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