It’s shameful that vandalism could cost Ashburton ratepayers at least $17,000 a year, a local councillor says.

For district councillor Carolyn Cameron, the fact vandalism has to be factored into budgets at all is deplorable.

The issue first caught her attention in April when it was revealed the council was factoring in an annual vandalism cost of $5000 a year in its estimates for the future maintenance of the proposed bike skills park in the Ashburton Domain.

“Are we now budgeting for vandalism?” Cameron said at the time.

“It’s a very sad state of affairs that we have to budget for vandalism.”

With the long-term plan adopted, in the 2024-25 financial year the council has budgeted $6700 to rectify vandalism at its public toilets, $9000 for commercial properties and $2000 for parks.

Cameron remained “incredulous”.

Infrastructure and open spaces group manager Neil McCann said it was always tricky trying to budget for work to deal with vandalism because it varied widely between locations and degrees of damage.

“You can get graffiti on a wall, or plumbing fixtures pulled off, and then you can get a deliberately-lit fire, like the one in the new toilets at the Rakaia Salmon reserve, and your costs go up.

“It’s just a fact of life that we need to budget for vandalism unfortunately, and that’s a cost that is not usually able to be recouped from the offenders because they cannot be identified.

“Ultimately it is paid for by ratepayers.”

But ratepayers shouldn’t be forced to fund the repairs of criminal behaviour, Cameron said.

“I understand the difficulty in getting [money] back from the vandals, but I don’t think it’s our responsibility to wear that.

“By budgeting for vandalism, we are acknowledging it and legitimising it.”

It is money that could be put to much better use than repairing wilful damage, she said.

“A lot of people don’t have a lot of discretionary income and to be charging more on rates to cover vandalism is pretty sad.”

Just under $5000 was spent in the previous financial year to fix vandalism under the parks and reserves general maintenance budget.

The council claimed insurance where it could for major work to repair vandalism but a lot of it was smaller, nuisance vandalism, McCann said.

“We hope that residents who spot damage happening will report it immediately to police, so the culprits can be dealt with, or even stopped before causing greater damage.”

One of the more expensive recent incidents occurred at the Rakaia Salmon site public toilets when they were set alight in an early morning incident in March, with the damage estimated to be around $6500.

CCTV footage captured the alleged offenders entering the cubicle, but police were unable to identify who they were.

When the incident was discussed in April, compliance and development group manager Jane Donaldson told councillors that to prosecute offenders “you really need cast iron evidence”.

The council spends around $90,000 a year on CCTV cameras but councillor Phill Hooper questioned if the cameras weren’t helping, was it worth the cost?

Cameras won’t solve the problem every time there is an incident but they do act as a deterrent, Donaldson said.

The council has also taken other preventative actions.

Closing some of the council’s public toilets at night has resulted in a decrease in vandalism, McCann said.

“Limiting access at night has paid off, and we’re not the only council to close some public toilets at night.”

Public toilets at Rakaia, Methven, and other outlying townships remain open 24/7, with several vandalism incidents recently highlighting the issue.

“On two separate occasions, plumbing fittings have been wrenched off the wall at the old Rakaia Domain toilets, causing water leaks and the facility having to be closed to the public to allow for repairs.

“Some internal cubicle dispensers at the Methven Railway reserve toilets were also smashed and their contents strewn all around inside the facility.

“The Methven Domain public toilets were also vandalised recently, with plumbing fixtures and fittings smashed, wrenched off and dislodged, leaving the water running out the doors.”

By Jonathan Leask