The toilet charges were proposed at a council meeting on Tuesday, with the council\u2019s public facilities, parks and places general manager Matthew Lanyon presenting a report to councillors.<\/p>\n
This followed discussions at a workshop last week about high toilet maintenance costs, usage, and how tourist infrastructure disproportionately impacted ratepayers.<\/p>\n
With the Tekapo Footbridge and Hamilton Drive facilities already operating as user-pays, Lanyon\u2019s report said the district\u2019s toilets had about 900,000 users a year, and generated $80,000 in annual revenue against operating costs of $800,000.<\/p>\n
The report proposed introducing user-pays systems at public facilities on Fairlie\u2019s Main Street, at Burkes Pass, Lakeside Drive in Tekapo, and Twizel\u2019s main centre.<\/p>\n
Lake Opuha, Edwards Stream, Pukaki Canal campsite, and Tekapo town centre facilities would remain free, although all except the latter are long-drops.<\/p>\n
![\"Mackenzie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mackenzie-district-council-2HMARX6XLVDBJEY6CF5S2YFISQ.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Mackenzie District Council. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n
The report also proposed a user-pays pilot at the Lake Pukaki facilities, which sit on Meridian Energy land, and electronic donation technology for the district\u2019s public facilities and freedom campgrounds, using QR codes.<\/p>\n
Mayor Scott Aronsen supported the introduction of the additional toilet charges, and said councils across the country were looking at Mackenzie.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sticking my neck out on the line … we need to show some leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is history making stuff,\u201d Aronsen said.<\/p>\n
Councillor Phillipa Guerin questioned the method of charging for the toilets and said it needed to be suitable for the wide range of community members, including elderly and disabled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat due diligence is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy mayor Rit Fisher said turnstile pay stations would be used, saying the introduction of charges was a \u201cno brainer\u201d due to the positive return on investment they would provide.<\/p>\n
Fisher said further discussion, and a businesses study would be important going forward.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/the-tekapo-footbridge-facilities-DGD2APM5XNB53O6GQC6MINK3S4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The Tekapo Footbridge facilities. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)<\/p>\n
Councillors approved the report\u2019s recommendations, including implementing the strategy and a user-pays system at the toilets, approving the electronic donation technology, the Pukaki pilot, and a recommendation to bring further information on the costs and details of the strategy.<\/p>\n
Amendments to the recommendations included asking for progress updates from officials and post-implementation reviews on the user-pays system, and further discussion with Meridian Energy on the pay system at Pukaki.<\/p>\n
Toilet user charges were introduced under the council\u2019s 2025\/26 Annual Plan, with a user-pays system installed at the Tekapo footbridge and Hamilton Dr facilities.<\/p>\n
But last year, after the council ruled only non-urban facilities should have user-pays applied, the system was removed from the Tekapo footbridge facilities.<\/p>\n
The payment system was then re-introduced to the footbridge facilities in April, with the council citing high annual maintenance costs.<\/p>\n
Existing charges are set at $1.50 for electronic payment and $2 for coins, with rates for the newly proposed sites yet to be confirmed.<\/p>\n
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travellers in the Mackenzie will soon have to budget for toilet stops. By Claire Taylor for Local Democracy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[158,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-615554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-christchurch-canterbury","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}