A group of Central Otago school pupils have made submissions to their district council over their school grounds being used a toilet stop for tourists.
Tarras School has had an ongoing problem for about six years now, principal Karen Blue says, where tourists jump the fence and relieve themselves on school grounds.
It's completely "inappropriate", she says, particularly as some were doing it in front of the kids.
The little township is famous for Shrek the sheep, and has a cafe and antique shop popular with tourists, Ms Blue says. But there are no public toilets.
The school kids took matters into their own hands by purchasing a port-a-loo. They funded it by selling the produce from the school's garden -- no mean feat considering it's a school of 12 pupils.
Central Otago District Council has now taken over the costs of providing the port-a-loo, Ms Blue says.
The school grounds where tourists are stopping to relieve themselves (Supplied)
Mayor Tony Lepper says the council heard from three Tarras school pupils at a meeting yesterday who wanted a solution.
He says the council doesn't own the land so has to partner with one of the owners in order to put in a toilet.
They aim to have a toilet built before the next summer, which will be funded by ratepayers.
Mr Lepper says the council will also be asking the Government for help.
"We think this is a classic example of where increase in tourists are leading to increase in problems, and us requiring to put in extra infrastructure," he says.
The council is committing around $300,000 towards "a fairly good standard of toilets", Mr Lepper says.
He says it was great to see the students getting involved.
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