GAWLER Council has moved to the next step of its $2.28 million revamp of Walker Place, despite objections from some elected members over the cost of retaining a 23-year-old piece of public artwork.

At their ordinary meeting last Tuesday night, elected members voted to send plans for a new toilet block to be built on nearby Julian Terrace – which would form part of the Walker Place redevelopment – out to public consultation.

The existing toilet block would be demolished, with council debating at the meeting what to do with the mural painted on the outside wall of the structure.

Councillors preferred an option that will see the existing wall, which displays the mural, reinforced and the toilet block demolished around it, which is set to cost council $93,000.

In doing so, council rejected another proposal that recommended removing the mural from the wall and re-establishing it in another location at a total cost of $135,000.

Four councillors, Ian Tooley, Paul Little, Jim Vallelonga and Brian Sambell, voted against sending the plans out to public consultation, questioning how council arrived at the cost of keeping the mural.

Cr Tooley said the figures were “immoral, and an absolute waste of ratepayers money”.

“How can we possibly come up with these figures?,” he said.

“Outsource this project to a private (company) and they’d do it for next to no price.

“This is not a historic remnant of the past, it can be moved.”

Mr Tooley also argued against the design of the Walker Place redevelopment, which he called a “multi-million dollar extended car park”.