Three Tarras School pupils have written to the local mayor, as visitors using the school's bushes as toilets continue to cause a stink in the small Central Otago centre.
Penelope and Charlotte Chapman-Cohen and Billie Willson have written a letter which they will soon send to Central Otago Mayor Tony Lepper asking for public toilets in the Tarras area.
The politely worded letter said the lack of toilets was a ''major problem'' for the school, it was a ''massive health hazard'' to have strangers relieving themselves on the grounds, ''not to mention other incidents'', and invited Mr Lepper to ''come and visit us and explain the outcome of this matter''.
''We have had people urinating in our school grounds during school hours and changing their babies' nappies on our picnic table where we eat,'' it said.
School groundsman Russell Auld said he regularly caught people trying to urinate in the bushes during school hours and found faeces on the premises on multiple occasions.
''Just the other day I caught a lady with her pants down behind the tree. I had to give her a lecture about being on school grounds.''
Principal Karen Blue initiated the project and helped the girls with wording.
''We really need a solution to this because having strangers on the grounds is big security issue,'' she said.
Charlotte, who penned the letter, said she put her name forward for the project because people using the school as a toilet was ''gross''.
''We sometimes see people at the gate looking for somewhere to go and we go tell a teacher.''
Tarras had a cafe, general store and gift shop and was a regular stop for travellers before or after journeying through the Lindis Pass.
There were no public toilets in the area, leading to many travellers jumping the school fence.
There was a toilet at the Country Cafe but its use was restricted to patrons only as its septic tank filled too quickly otherwise.
Over the years, instances of public urination led to a steady stream of complaints to council from locals.
When contacted, Mr Lepper, who did not know about the letter, said the council was working with locals to fix the problem.
Council properties manager Mike Kerr said it had worked with the Country Cafe on new toilets and a ''joint waste disposal system'' for years.
The original problem was due to ownership of land next door, but the cafe owner recently bought it, he said.
''We have accepted that there is a problem but we have to decide how much of that is council responsibility and how much is the responsibility of those businesses.''
The council was working on determining how many of the people who used the toilets were cafe patrons.
The council had set aside $115,000 for the estimated $230,000 cost of the waste scheme.
