Nowhere to go in Coatesville
When you gotta go, the bush or local cafes are the only immediate options at an Upper Harbour reserve.
While there are public facilities further down the CoatesvilleRiverhead Highway, Coatesville Reserve doesn’t have any. The nearest toilets open to the public during the week are at cafes Fernielea and Black Cottage.
Resident Heather Seel said, although she is not campaigning for public facilities, she thinks they should ‘‘absolutely’’ be provided.
She said for those doing the eight-kilometre ‘‘block walk’’ around Mahoenui Valley, Ridge and Glenmore roads, it would prevent a dash into the bush or having to go up and use toilets at the school.
Seel also does a weekly boot camp at the reserve and said people are a ‘‘bit stuck’’ if they need to use a bathroom.
Friends of Coatesville School chairman Jason Steele said there aren’t any bathroom options when with children at the reserve or school playground during the weekend.
Fernielea Cafe owner Rain Chen said she estimated four to five non-patrons a day - who they never turned away - came in just to use the bathroom facilities.
Next door’s Black Cottage Cafe kept their bathrooms locked but owner Banu Kaynarcali said all they wanted to do was to supply the ‘‘best service’’ possible for customers. Locals who needed to use the bathrooms were welcome, she said.
The cafes are on septic tanks of around 20,000 litres each, which need to be pumped weekly. Pumping costs are between $500 and more than $700 a week, the cafe owners said.
Coatesville Ratepayers and Residents Association (CRRA) chairman Mike Rowe said the issue of public toilets had ‘‘never been brought up’’ with the group.
He said the two main users of the reserve - Coatesville Pony Club and the Coatesville Market, which is held at the hall - both had their own toilets.
Rodney Local Board member Louise Johnston said there hadn’t been a ‘‘major issue’’ regarding public toilets and also hadn’t heard of any requests.
Auckland Council head of asset management and intelligence support Raymond Tan said they were carrying out an assessment to identify gaps in the provision of public toilets for reserves in Rodney.