As a consequence some public toilets would be closed overnight, which would bring additional costs.
At yesterday’s Central Otago District Council meeting, asset management team leader Janice Remnant said the public toilet budget was overspent by about $57,000, in part because of vandalism.
Since she had prepared her report for the meeting there had been four more incidents costing about $2000 to repair.
The three main drivers for the budget blowout were increased levels of service, higher operational costs and unprecedented vandalism.
From July last year until May there were 55 incidents of vandalism, she said.
The repair cost at the time of preparing the report was $32,103, not including staff time to manage repairs.
Only one incident, at the Lode Lane toilets in Cromwell, was able to be repaired through an insurance claim.
The Pioneer Park toilets, in Alexandra, was targeted most with 15 incidences of damage.
CCTV cameras were installed at Pioneer Park in March and suspects in two incidents had been identified.
All vandalism was reported to police, she said.
Property and facilities manager Garreth Robinson said from July 1, some toilets would be closed overnight, to prevent them being damaged.
The cost for the council’s security company to close them each evening would be $12,775, which was included in the annual plan budget.
Toilets to be closed at 8pm in winter and 10pm during daylight saving and reopened at 7.30am were:
• Alexandra BMX toilets
• Molyneux playground toilets
• Golden Block toilets
• Molyneux Scoreboard
• Tarbert St toilets
