Heart of the City: A $250 reason to close the Wachner Place restrooms
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The Invercargill City Council will close its public restroom facility at Wachner Place for good in August, with councillors unable to justify the $200,000 annual cost.
The Wachner Place restroom offers toilets, a shower, and lockers for public use.
Many councillors said there were plenty of other toilets available in inner city Invercargill, including at the nearby library and Invercargill Central shopping centre.
The council will now work with Invercargill Central around the possible introduction of a new public shower offering to help the “homeless” who don’t otherwise have access to a shower.
While there were about 14,000 annual uses of the toilets at Wachner Place, there were just 275 shower uses. It ranged from 21 to 55 shower uses per month.
Cr Lesley Soper pointed out it was a lot of ratepayer money to cater for just 275 shower uses.
Mayor Nobby Clark calculated it at about $250 per shower.
There was an option put to councillors to drop the opening hours from 84 hours per week to 21 hours, which would have saved $107,000.
Although Cr Lesley Soper said it was still hard to justify the cost.
It was agreed to close the Wachner Place restroom/toilet building when the current contract with the operators ends on August 31.
Mayor Clark said the Wachner Place building had been included in the current redevelopment of Wachner Place.
With the facility set to close and the building to potentially be demolished, Clark said the council would need to advise developer Geoff Thomson to allow that to be factored in.
Thomson is transforming the old Menzies Building behind Wachner Place into a new hotel.
He is also leading the redevelopment of Wachner Place, which will include the introduction of a bus lane from Dee St to the new hotel.
Councillors felt there still needs to be an offering for the city’s “most vulnerable” to have access to a shower, and they will now work through alternative options.
The bike storage section at Invercargill Central, which also includes a shower, has been identified as one possible option.
It can be accessed externally from Tay St and is situated next to the ramp leading to the Invercargill Central car park.
Cr Barry Stewart raised concerns about attracting the city’s “vulnerable people” to the city shopping centre complex.
Although Cr Soper clarified that people would not access the main shopping centre to get to the shower facility.
“People who used that shower - if we opened it and paid the cleaning costs - would not be entering the mall as such. They would be accessing a separate showering facility off Tay St,” Soper said.
The council acknowledged there would need to be cleaning costs factored into its budget, and some fit-out costs work to separate the bike storage and shower area.
Cr Alex Crackett supported the council investigating the shower option at Invercargill Central, but she was also keen to see other potential options explored.
“I wonder if there was an opportunity to get our most vulnerable accessing community facilities, which might help with quality of life.
“I had a discussion with some other councillors previously around potentially developing a shower concession card for the likes of Splash Palace…
“They could use other facilities that we already provide and already have the infrastructure for. Or working with organisations that are in the CBD, such as the YMCA.”
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Cr Stewart wants to create barriers to keep ‘vulnerable’ people out of council-owned buildings, rather than providing facilities to make those people less vulnerable. Sounds like a councillor who is more concerned about the welfare of the infrastructure instead of the welfare of Invercargill’s citizens.
What has knobby cost us with his indiscretions.. all while he’s sat back collecting a 7 figure paycheck..