By Warren Gamble
High-quality relief could soon be only a brief sprint away for anyone caught short in the inner city.
The Auckland City Council is taking a leaf from Wellington's book and is planning an upmarket toilet block costing up to $500,000 and likely to be sited in Queen St or
within a block of it.
The lavish facility, made of "highest-quality materials," will be staffed by an attendant who will have the job of providing handy information to tourists as well as keeping the toilets sparkling.
Council planner Nicole Haines said people had complained about the lack of toilets in Queen St and the difficulty of finding other inner-city lavatories.
Toilets in Wellesley, Wyndham, Victoria, Durham and Customs Sts were seen as hard to find and not always user-friendly.
The new super-loo will be similar to one built by the Wellington City Council in Lambton Quay.
It is likely to have a shower, a baby-changing room, facilities for the disabled and about 12 unisex cubicles, two of them available round-the-clock.
Unlike some district councils which are charging public toilet users, the city council does not plan an up-front fee. But it may charge for the use of towels.
Council officers are looking for a suitable site, possibly at the front of a council building, somewhere between the Town Hall and Fort St.
Once the site is found, planning and construction are expected to take about six months.
Depending on how much the new loo costs, the $500,000 budget could also stretch to smaller toilets in the Upper Queen St-Karangahape Rd area.
And for the convenience of America's Cup visitors, two new toilets are planned for the Viaduct Basin.
The council is also upgrading historic brick toilet blocks on Tamaki Drive.
The Okahu Bay block is now getting a $135,000 makeover, and the Kohimarama and St Heliers blocks are due for $160,000 of improvements this financial year.
