Shop toilets used as loo closes
The Cambridge Superloo’s closure has forced some of its loyal customers to seek relief among the town’s businesses.
Jutta Mark owns Aly’s Antiques on Victoria St and said every week people ask to use the toilet at her shop.
The much-loved Victoria Square Superloo ‘‘semi-closed’’ in November after a report to the Waipa District Council showed falling patronage.
The council left two toilets at the Superloo open and there were other public toilets in town people could use.
However Mark doesn’t think it’s acceptable. People were still asking to use toilets at shops in town perhaps because the two remaining at the Superloo could not meet demand.
‘‘Why is the council so poor that it can’t afford to keep the toilets open but it can afford to extend footpaths on Victoria St that don’t need extending?
‘‘The foot traffic there is abysmally low, but the toilets are a basic human need,’’ she said.
She doesn’t feel comfortable letting people use her shop’s toilet because they have to walk through a storeroom.
‘‘There can be some pretty clever thieves, I have to watch everyone in this shop like a hawk and I store things out the back there,’’ said Mark.
But she didn’t feel comfortable turning people away, specially if they were elderly or pregnant.
She wanted to know if any other Cambridge businesses had the same issue since the Superloo closed. The Cambridge Superloo was noted as a ‘‘stand out facility’’ in an AA member survey earlier this month.
Council’s group manager ser- vice delivery Barry Bergin said he could understand why retailers would be uncomfortable allowing people to use their own toilets.
But he said free-to-use toilets were still available at the Superloo site, open 24 hours a day.
‘‘They are regularly cleaned and serviced.
‘‘We anticipated these two toilets would be busier than nor- mal over the Christmas break so in December we put in a counting mechanism to measure use,’’ he said.
‘‘We’ll be assessing use and seeing where we go from there.’’
The Superloo building would still open for special events in Cambridge when the town is particularly busy. Closing the Superloo building saves ratepayers $69,000 per year, he said.