Mangaweka toilets coming, says council

Relief is in sight for needy travellers passing through Mangaweka with public toilets on the horizon for the State Highway 1 village. Rangitı¯kei District Council has also agreed to pay the near-$3000 bill it got from Mangaweka cafe Papa Cliff for services rendered to passing motorists, in particular for their use of the cafe’s toilets and rubbish bins. After Grayson first complained about the nonpaying public using the cafe’s toilets and rubbish facilities, mayor Andy Watson offered assurances that public toilets could be on the way for the summer of 2017. But when they didn’t eventuate, an evidently fedup Grayson fired an invoice to the council, saying it should pay her $2875 to cover the costs of catering to the convenience of caught-short travellers for the past 24 months. Watson said the council at its last meeting agreed and would be paying Grayson’s bill. He said he had used the cafe’s facilities himself, to go with a cup of coffee and/or a bite to eat. ‘‘I certainly value it as a stop-off point but I’ve seen people using it just for their toilets.’’ The council would be ‘‘working with Papa Cliff’’ until the new toilets were built, he said. He was unsure of the sequence but expected the proposed toilets to be built in ‘‘a reasonably short time frame’’. Watson said because of a consenting issue, the location of the planned toilets was shifted slightly south to almost opposite Mangaweka’s iconic DC3 aeroplane structure, where some NZ Transport Agency-owned land was available. The agency had given its approval.