Katherine Town Council agrees the Ryan Park automated toilet is an eyesore which needs to be removed.

Mayor Fay Miller wants it gone yesterday.

CEO Rob Jennings agreed it was “dead” and says it could be gone in two or three months.

But when it was installed five years ago, it was supposed to be the answer to all the area’s problems.

Instead Ryan Park’s brick toilet will live on while the steel toilet will be flattened.

One resident told the council on Monday she wants it covered straight away because it is such a ugly sight for motorists entering the town.

A search of the Katherine Times’ archives revealed that vandals damaged the toilet even before it was opened back in June 2012.

It cost $90,000 to install but cost money to fix before it was opened and has cost much more in the intervening five years to maintain.

We will likely never know how much it has cost.

Our search of the archives also revealed Alderman Steven Rose (still an alderman today) argued strongly in 2011 against the purchase of the three automated toilets warning they would prove costly.

Now the council is spending money to haul away the battered Ryan Park loo, and needs to jazz up the Giles Street toilet if it is to survive.