Southland District Council parks and recreation lead Jacqui Ligthart said vandalism at the new toilets was not an isolated incident and often coincided with school holidays.
‘‘Unfortunately, this is not a new occurrence.
‘‘When it comes to public conveniences it is hard to catch the offenders involved.
‘‘We will continue to raise these issues and work through various ideas to try and reduce this happening.’’
Installing security cameras was an option if damage costs increased.
But installing cameras would need the involvement of the Oraka Aparima Community Board, she said.
Community board chair Robin McCall said having the toilet block trashed was ‘‘a bit disappointing’’.
‘‘There’s no value in vandalism ... it’s demoralising ... it’s just money down the gurgler.
‘‘I don’t even know what the vandals get out of it.’’
He planned to discuss options with board members about installing cameras in the vicinity of the toilets to monitor who was accessing them and protect the ratepayers’ investment in the area.
‘‘We really want to try and create a deterrent or catch people when it happens.’’
He would like to see those responsible made to perform ‘‘appropriate’’ community service that would act as a deterrent.
‘‘Something that’s sufficient to make them think twice before they decide to go somewhere else and do it.
Up to $950,000 had already been invested in phase one of the area’s development and phase two was due to start soon.
Phase one included the playground, barbecues and toilet-shower block, and phase two includes a permanent pump track and ninja circuit.
‘‘So it’s a reasonable bucket of money and we don’t want clowns trashing stuff when we’re investing that sort of money as well as the investment in the rest of the playground. Also the toilets weren’t the cheapest toilets.’’
The redevelopment had strong community support and was heavily used.
‘‘Some days there’ll be 30 people there ... it tends to be getting some pretty good patronage.’’
