Much-need upgrades to public toilets at the Warkworth i-SITE, Kowhai Park and Leigh Hall started this month.
Auckland Council originally planned to start the work between February and April, but the projects were delayed due to “a busy construction industry”, Council says.
Both the Warkworth refurbishments involve the closure of the toilets from now until July, plus a loss of several parking spaces while the work is carried out and both sites become construction zones.
Temporary portable toilets have been installed next to the i-SITE.
A modular unisex toilet with three cubicles and a distinctive exterior design featuring historic local photographs is being installed at Kowhai Park, near the Matakana Road entrance. Rodney Local Board chair Beth Houlbrooke told a recent Warkworth Area Liaison Group meeting that the new toilet could cause quite a stir.
“I think they are going to be a real spectacle,” she said. “One facade will feature a photo from the 1950s of the roundabout at Hill Street, and I think that will create a lot of discussion.”
Photos of an old car, a horse and cart, and the old cement works will also feature.
She added that there would be a review of all public toilets in the Rodney district next year, based on local population and visitor numbers.
The $350,000 Kowhai Park upgrade will also include a new campervan dumping station, a 16-space sealed car park, a grassed area for overflow parking, a new precast concrete footbridge and footpath improvements, including a new path to a safer pedestrian crossing point on Matakana Road.
Council says the park’s redesign and new facilities have taken into account any possible future widening of the Hill Street intersection, and adds that the modular toilet can be moved if necessary.
The southern end of the car park will remain open until June 12 then the whole site will be closed until the end of July. Council is directing people hoping to use the loos or dump station to the toilets at Warkworth Showgrounds and to campervan dump stations at Wellsford and Hatfields Beach.
The $275,000 upgrade of the town centre i-SITE toilets includes replacing all internal fittings and fixtures, re-cladding and painting the inside, installing new drainage and re-coating the floor. The finished block will consist of three female and two male toilets, two urinals and a unisex toilet with wheelchair access and a baby-change table.
The i-SITE toilets and the toilets at Leigh Hall, which are also being refurbished, are due to re-open on July 7.
