Vandalism at Hastings Pak’nSave shuts toilets for six months, frustrating customer

Andrew McDonald says Pak'nSave Hastings has kept its toilet closed for too long and it is unfair to people with different needs. Photo / Paul Taylor

A Hawke’s Bay man believes the law should change to ensure supermarkets always have toilets accessible to the public.

Vandalism has ruined the public toilets at Pak’nSave Hastings and the facilities have been closed for six months.

Customer Andrew McDonald says he is passionate about the accessibility of toilets in public spaces because his daughter has Crohn’s disease.

“For me, I feel sorry for the elderly people and the people who really need to have a toilet but aren’t being provided one.”

He claims he recently saw what appeared to be human faeces with makeshift toilet paper out in the carpark when he went to Pak’nSave, which he attributed to the lack of toilet facilities.

“You are the only supermarket in Hawke’s Bay that doesn’t provide a toilet, and this is the result.”

Toilets are a requirement under the Building Code in general, the number of which depends on the building size, the number of people expected to use it and what the purpose of the building is.

However, a Hastings District Council spokesperson said in a statement there is no specific legal requirement for supermarkets to provide public toilets on their premises.

“The provision of public toilets in supermarkets is typically at the discretion of the business owners,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the requirements of the Building Code were focused on staff facilities rather than public toilets.

“The only business required to provide toilets to members of the public are [those in which customers] ‘eat food or drink on the premises’, i.e. cafes, tea rooms, restaurants, bars and nightclubs.”

McDonald runs a business that does not serve food, but he says he has still got a toilet that members of the public can use.

“They [supermarkets] are selling food you could eat straight away. It is a bit of a grey area,” he said.

Emma Wooster, a Foodstuffs spokeswoman, said the store was waiting for parts to allow it to complete repairs to the customer toilet.

Another Foodstuffs spokeswoman confirmed repairs were likely to be completed in the next couple of weeks.

“It’s extremely frustrating that mindless acts like this can have such a significant impact on all our customers,” Wooster said.

“We know it’s not ideal, but in the meantime, if a customer needs to access the bathroom, a member of the team can take them to the staff bathroom.”

McDonald said he was never offered the staff toilet as an alternative when he enquired about the toilet closure.

A Foodstuffs spokeswoman said the reason the staff toilet was not offered could have been because it had not been well communicated to staff that it was an option at the time.

A Retail NZ spokeswoman said some members of the public took customer toilets for granted and retailers saw vandalism at their facilities.

“If retailers make the choice to provide a toilet for customer use, this is on private property, and at the discretion of the retailer – who covers the cost for repair and maintenance of these facilities,” the spokeswoman said.

“Of course, some New Zealanders rely on these facilities in certain circumstances,. However, if the facility is not safe or fit for purpose, a retailer cannot provide that offering to the community.”

James Pocock joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2021 and writes breaking news and features, with a focus on environment, local government and post-cyclone issues in the region. He has a keen interest in finding the bigger picture in research and making it more accessible to audiences. He lives in Napier. james.pocock@nzme.co.nz