New toilets will be installed soon in Joyce Petchell Park, Wainui Road, Raglan. The toilets will be of the self-cleaning type which play music to the users. The old toilets in Joyce Petchell Park were demolished to make way for construction of the new museum. In the meantime a temporary double portaloo has been in service.
The new double toilet is a “Jupiter” model being supplied by the Exeloo company at a cost of close to a quarter of a million dollars ($227,600). No chance of just spending-a-penny with a cost like that!
WDC will also be moving a single Exeloo “Orbit” toilet from Huntly to Raglan. This “Orbit” toilet is to be installed near the Raglan Town Hall in the parking area between the Town Hall and the Plunket Building. The relocation of this toilet from Huntly to Raglan will cost $20,000.
WDC is currently applying for building consents and other authorisations for installation of the toilets. It is expected that both Exeloo toilets will be operational by the end of May 2011.
It appears the council is going ahead with constructing a building on in the marine area at Joyce Petchell park – a public reserve? Surely this building will include public toilets without having to import two toilets worth quarter of a million dollars.
Like wise surely $20,000 to import a shiny toilet from Huntly could be better spent on upgrading public toilet facilities at the Community House and Town Hall.
Further, the businesses who use the public footpath to sell coffee and cake, could be expected to provide quality toilets for the public.
If the musical toilets in Frankton and Dinsdale are an example, I think not. What happens in power cuts and the doors remain closed?
Thanks for the post. It does seem a lot of money for toilets. I guess the cafe businesses would say that they all already have toilets for their patrons.
Have any of you ever gone on a house removal website like Jack House Transit for example and seen how affordable secondhand toilet blocks are? at that price we could even update them every few years. !!! Musical toilets??? I can just imagine the tune played being the talking point of our visitors….like “oh wow you should hear the range of tunes in Raglan toilets!!!” Lets apply the zero waste, recycling strategy we Raglan people are proud of and do a bit of lateral thinking; at least look into options before those who spend our hard earned dollars have their wasteful ways.
The Jack House toilet blocks are in fibre cement. Given the very high current vandalism in public areas around Raglan, how many days would these Jack toilets last before requiring expensive repairs and modification?