Following a successful upgrade of public toilets in the Ōpōtiki town centre, the district council plans to refurbish the Ōpōtiki Surf Lifesaving Club and Hukuwai Beach toilets in the coming year.

The lifesaving club toilets refurbishment has already been contracted out and is scheduled to begin from April 1.

Ōpōtiki District Council decided on Tuesday to reallocate $102,070 it had budgeted for new toilets at Waiotahe Drifts in the long-term plan to top up the budgets to refurbish toilets at Hukuwai Beach and the surf lifesaving club at Waiotahe Beach.

A further $50,000 has been allocated to the refurbishments from its reserve fund to replace external three waters funding from central government that was never realised.

A review of the budgets has shown that cost estimates of $156,480 for each of the refurbishments had not been updated to account for inflation since they were developed over 10 years ago.

A planned new toilet at Waiotahe Drifts has been found to be no longer required, leaving funds budgeted for this available.