A new loo is in the works for Hampden, but not before Waitaki district councillors got into a wee debate over the aesthetic merit of the proposed design.
Drivers stopping in the town south of Oamaru on State Highway 1 could be using a $145,000 stand-alone public toilet block as early as June 2016 after the Waitaki District Council's community services committee approved a plan submitted by council recreation manager Erik van der Spek, plus an increase of $45,000 to the original $100,000 budget.
Cr Jim Hopkins, of Oamaru, was the lone dissenting vote on the committee.
He said the design looked ''terrifyingly like a World War 2 pill box or gun emplacement''.
There could have been more consideration given to the ''intangible benefits that a well-designed loo'' could provide to a community, he said, noting Friedensreich Hundertwasser's toilet in the Far North town of Kawakawa, which has stopped travellers on State Highway 1 since it opened in 1999.
''I'm just going to flag the fact that a little more care and thought could could have been put in it,'' Cr Hopkins said.
Cr Melanie Tavendale disagreed with Cr Hopkins, saying the simple block could lend itself to an artistic treatment and could be painted.
Mr van der Spek said the request for new toilets came from the the Waihemo Community Board and the Hampden Hall committee about two years ago.
The hall houses the existing public toilets in Hampden.
The council 0had considered six sites in town since then, but council officers believed the best location was the southeast corner of the community hall.
The existing toilets would remain in place and continue to be used by the hall.
