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Toilets at the top of the Rimutaka Hill - Source: ONE News -
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The controversial destruction of the toilets at the top of the Rimutaka Hill has been postponed after locals staged a small protest.
The building was set to be bulldozed on Tuesday morning despite calls for a stay of execution.
It was a small protest maybe but certainly no small amount of passion.
"I think it's good that we've got some influential people here from the Wairarapa that are committed to something happening here. It is the gateway to the Wairarapa and for that matter the Wellington region as well," says Gary McPhee, Carterton district mayor.
However the gateway is not much to look at, just graffitied toilets and the charred remains of an old cafe destroyed by a suspicious fire last week.
But despite that, debate over the toilets' future has been raging in the area for months.
The regional council, which owns the toilets, wants them pulled down, but locals are up in arms.
"There's always people stopping up here. If there are not facilities here they're going to have to find places to go to the toilet," says Julie Adam, a local resident.
The door to the toilet at the summit is now welded shut. But just down this path there's evidence people have been wandering down there and into the bushes to relieve themselves.
"All they've done is created the biggest outdoor toilet with the most amazing view that anyone's ever seen. And for what? Because they're too lazy to get up here and service the facility," says Ron Mark, former New Zealand First MP.
The protest has worked, for now, the regional council postponing the destruction. A spokesman told ONE News the council did not want to put a contractor in a "difficult situation".
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