A motion was carried at a Kiama Council meeting on Tuesday night to conduct an audit of all 28 amenities across the municipality.

Councillor Andrew Sloan said the audit was long overdue.

“It’s going to be wonderful to see this get a revamp,” he said. 

“I think the vintage of the toilets is the 1940s, and nothing much has happened since, it’s been an embarrassment to the town to be honest.

“I’m very glad to see this as the first priority in what’s going to become a wave of refurbishments for our toilets.”

Cr Sloan said all councillors receive complaints about the condition of public toilets across the municipality.

“Tourists are unlikely to contact us and they are the ones who are using these facilities the most.” he said.

“All councillors are receiving complaints about the age and condition of some of the amenity blocks.

“What we would really like to see is the community involved as we decide what order we do these toilet blocks up, and we would love to really hear from people to help us prioritise the order that things are refurbished.”

The design for the Black Beach Reserve toilet block will be finalised in the next week. It is anticipated the refurbishment will be complete by August / September 2017.

Kiama Council acting general manager Kerry McMurray said the design would “mirror the surrounding standard building form”. 

“It will have a pitched roof, epoxy floor, we will clad the outside of the building, replace all the PC items [fittings and fixtures] on the inside and line the inside,” he said.

“It will match the toilets on the other side of the harbour.”

The lack of public toilets at Minnamurra Railway Station was also raised at the council meeting.

“We will need to advocate for the state government to make a change,” Mr McMurray said.

“Most likely when it was designed they didn’t foresee such a large amount of people coming through it, which is what has happened with increased residents and tourism numbers going through the roof.”

Kiama MP Gareth Ward said he would welcome comments from the community on the issue.

“I would be happy to receive requests to improve public amenities, it should be a priority for council and the state government,” he said.

Council manages 28 public amenities buildings across the municipality, which include: