$ 300,000 toilet block for Ingham Relief at last on town’s loo

THE Hinchinbrook Shire Council has allocated more than $ 300,000 to build “aesthetically pleasing” public toilets in the main street of Ingham, just off the Bruce Highway.

In a unanimous vote during a special meeting on November 13, the council approved a quotation from a New South Wales company for $ 245,227 ( excluding GST) for “the design and construction of a toilet amenities facility,” which comprises one male toilet, one female toilet and one parents’ room.

In addition, the council approved almost $ 7000 for an automatic sliding door on the parents’ room, $ 23,385 for a “timber aluminium batten finish” and $ 60,000 for a sewer connection.

Cr Marc Tack, who moved the motion, said there was not a single cent of ratepayer money being spent on the toilets, the construction of which was funded by the State Government’s Works for Queensland infrastructure program.

Cr Tack said the council had received $ 2 million funding from the program, which had been allocated to the toilets, roadworks and footpaths.

The price was “par for the course,” he said.

“One of the main issues in this town is toilets in the main street for all the community, it has been one of the real driving issues,” he said.

“We’ve done a community survey and the overwhelming response was that people in the community want the toilets.”

Cr Tack said he had been campaigning for the toilets for more than five years and built his last two campaigns around the issue. He said the toilets were also for visitors.

“We have a lot of tourists who walk in from Tyto and the RV parks who are looking for toilets, who have been going into businesses, and there is quite a bit of resentment about that … it’s been a huge issue.

Cr Tack said the toilets would be constructed opposite JK’s Delicatessen.

Mayor Ramon Jayo defended the $ 300,000 price tag.

“And the money is not what you see above the ground, it is what’s under the ground … there have to be mains constructed to take sewerage waste to council’s main facility.”

Cr Jayo said it was important that the toilets at the centre of Ingham’s main road was “aesthetically pleasing and fit with the streetscape”.

He said the proverbial brick- type toilet building was not good enough for the town.

“All this came from the community consultation process,” said Cr Jayo.

The winner of the tender was Armidale- based Fabranamics Pty Ltd ( Pureablue), a company that markets itself as “public restroom specialists”.

“We have the expertise to deliver value in design, construction, operating cost,” Pureablue’s Website says.