Council to spend half a million dollars on new Tāhunanui toilets

Friday, 10 July 2020

The new public toilet will be a mix of prefabricated toilet blocks and a designed exterior from Jerram Tocker Barron Architects. The project is expected to be completed by summer.

Despite a $250,000 Government grant Nelson City Council will still be spending half a million dollars for a new block of toilets.

The Tāhunanui Lions playground toilet block has been up for refurbishment since 2018, when the council was granted $500,000 from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's Tourism Infrastructure Fund, to be split down the middle to pay for the upgrade of the Tāhunanui and Millers Acre loos.

The new block, to be constructed by Coman Construction and designed by Jerram Tocker Barron Architects, will cost a total of $798,000, according to councillor Matt Lawrey.

The council has come under fire before for high-priced public toilets at the Queen's Gardens, a two-cubicle facility which cost $455,000 and had $98,000 in architecture fees alone.

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That toilet was also designed by Jerram Tocker Barron, who won an award for their design of another public toilet in Nelson’s 1903 square.

The existing TÄhunanui toilet block will be demolished and replaced by December this year.

The new Tāhunanui toilets will provide six toilets and several changing rooms, made of prefabricated cubicles installed into an overarching structure.

Council group manager of community services Roger Ball said the demolition of the existing block and construction of the new facility would cost $323,000, and fitting the prefabricated toilet and changing rooms will cost $412,000. A portion, $250,000, will be covered by the grant, leaving a $548,000 tab for the council to pick up.

In August last year the community services approved a budget of $900,000 for the project. The design and consultancy was estimated in 2019 to cost $35,000; the council did not provide Stuff with a break down of the current consulting, architects, or design fees.

The new toilet block is intended to be completed between October and December this year, but Ball said delivery of the project was affected by the Covid-19 lockdown and the actual completion was now dependent on “consenting time frames”.

The current block has two changing rooms, two women’s toilet stalls, and one urinal and one toilet stall for men.

The new block will have four unisex toilets, one accessible toilet, one urinal, three unisex changing rooms, one unisex accessible or family changing room, three outdoor showers, and a drinking fountain with water-bottle filler and foot-wash.

Councillor Mel Courtney said he was “excited” to see the project underway.

“The good thing for me is the design … I think it's value for money.

“I think you judge a business by the public toilets it provides, and I think you judge a city by the public toilets it provides.”

Chair of community services Matt Lawrey acknowledged “that the price does come as a shock” for some people, but said the project was one people had been wanting for years.

“People have been calling for those toilets to be replaced for a very long time … the ones we’ve got there are past their use-by date: they’re smelly, they’re manky, and they’re always suspiciously wet.”

He said people might compare the cost to the price of constructing a house; “but it’s not a house”.

“There’s a lot of plumbing involved, there’s a water pressure issue in that area, also it’s being built on sand so there are challenges there.”

Lawrey said the toilets were often the first impression people had of the city.

“In many ways, those loos are the gateway to the city. They're our gateway loos. Visitors drive into Nelson, they stop at the beach and go to the loo. First impressions count.”