At the Council Meeting on 29 September 2026 the elected members made a number of key decisions.
User Pay Toilets and Koha System
Council approved the development of a district-wide Public Toilet Strategy to provide a long-term framework for the provision, location, funding and management of public toilet facilities across the Mackenzie District.
In addition, electronic koha/donation technology would be introduced at appropriate public toilet, responsible camping and visitor facility locations across the district to replace coin donation boxes.
An electronic solution would be introduced to accept donations / koha at the following Responsible Camping Areas:
- Ruataniwha
- Edwards Stream;
- Punatahu / Pines;
- Lake Wardell
An electronic user-pays solution would be introduced at the following public toilet facilities:
- Fairlie main block;
- Burkes Pass;
- Tekapo Footbridge toilet (renewal), Lakeside Drive and Main Carpark in Tekapo (as part of full replacement of the main block);
- Twizel main block
The Council was recently (July 2026) been awarded $2.5 million from the International Visitor Levy to support improvements in public toilet infrastructure and staff have been asked to liaise with MBIE to recovery of the costs of this project before work commences.
Council staff will bring a subsequent paper back to Council for approval providing estimated revenue, full costs and details about the preferred supplier, proposed hardware to be installed alongside future contractual arrangements, including how support for toilets (during and after working hours) would be handled. Council also requested that officers provide regular progress updates to key project milestones and a post-implementation review, with a prompt reporting of any material changes to cost, scale, and timing or risk.
Council also approved in principle the installation of a turnstile user-pay system at the Pukaki toilet facility, as long as there are no technical impediments to the proposed installation, including confirmation of the required technical specifications, compatibility with a Payment system, and appropriate accessibility provisions for accessible users.
Paid Parking
At the meeting, Councillors approved the next steps to introducing paid parking in Mackenzie. Specifically, they:
- Approved a paid parking pilot programme in Lake Tekapo, with implementation targeted before Easter 2027.
- Approved progressing the necessary review and amendment of Council’s Parking Bylaw and existing schedules to provide the regulatory framework required for paid parking.
- Approved further data collection and analysis to establish baseline parking information and support evaluation of the pilot.
They asked that staff bring a follow-up report back to Council by 30 November 2026 with details of the project, including a detailed project plan and budget.
They also noted that the outcomes and data from the Lake Tekapo pilot would inform decisions regarding permanent paid parking in Tekapo and expansion of paid parking to other areas of the Mackenzie District no later than August 2027.
Alpine Shares
Councillors considered whether to dispose of its shares in Alpine Energy Limited (being 2,049,870 ordinary shares, representing 4.96% of Alpine's issued capital).
They agreed that community consultation on this matter should be undertaken and that the final decision would be made after consideration of submissions received;
They also agreed that if a sale of the shares was progressed, the proceeds would be invested in a professionally managed investment fund and intende that the returns from the investment be utilised as may be determined by the Council.