City of Coffs Harbour Council has indefinitely closed the Sapphire Beach public amenities block after a spate of vandalism that has left the Council lamenting the cost and inconvenience to the community.
In multiple incidents over the past two weeks, the building has come under arson attack, with doors kicked in, faucets broken and toilet roll holders destroyed.
“It is beyond disappointing to see such reckless damage to a public amenity block,” said Mayor, Nikki Williams.
“The fire damage to the building includes plastic pipes and plumbing which has melted.”
The Council maintains 42 public amenity facilities across the Local Government Area.
“Amenities cleaning and maintenance is one of the City’s largest expenditure items, accounting for a larger proportion of the budget than what is allocated towards bridge and footpath maintenance combined,” said City Infrastructure Group Leader, Daniel Noble.
“Unfortunately this is why a lot of these facilities feature robust but harsh surfaces like stainless steel, and it’s also why we do not include soap dispensers.
“The City team has developed some innovative solutions to the issue of vandalism in public amenity buildings such as reinforced toilet roll dispensers and we’re continuing to look for other opportunities to make the facilities more robust.”
In the current financial year, the City budgeted approximately $975,000 for amenities maintenance.
A portion of that is spent on cleaning, and a significant slice of the remainder is needed to effect vandalism repairs.
“It’s so frustrating that almost a quarter of a million dollars per year could be spend elsewhere. This amount is almost double what we spend on Foreshores maintenance at the Jetty and Woolgoolga,” Mr Noble said.
