Imagine this, it's a hot summer's day and you have taken your children to the park to play on the playground. You are sitting baking in the hot sun and you're left wondering ‘where is all the shade?'

A concerned Tauranga resident has raised the issue that there are no sun shades at parks and playground around the city.

There are plenty of artificial sun shades covering school playgrounds, but none over council ones.

'I have noticed that we don't have any sun shades at all around the parks here in Tauranga,” says the resident who doesn't wish to be named.

'All over the waterfront there is nothing and there is a new park being built in Arataki, and there is no sun shade on that.”

The resident recently went on a holiday down to Napier and noticed there were a lot more sun shades down there.

'If you look at the parks in Napier, all of their foreshore has beautiful sun shades and they have got this amazing park called Anderson Park and that is fully sun shaded, even where the parents sit and there is even water fountains and everything there.

'But the new park being built at Arataki they have taken three houses away and haven't put in any water or sewerage treatment or anything.”

The concerned resident also brought up a point, with how hot the equipment gets when there is no shade covering it, 'It doesn't take long to burn these days.”

Julie Davies and Tito (1yr) playing in the fountain at The Strand TCC playground.

The resident has also taken up the sun shades issue with the Tauranga City Council but says what they said to her is that their policy is for the trees to be the shade.

'But the trees don't actually grow where the playgrounds are. The trees are at the side,” she says.

She also says she doesn't think it is in the council's vision at all to put any sun shades in.

'I was wondering why and then the trip away definitely knocked it home and with the park going up it started falling into place that nothing was happening.”

SunLive reached out to the Tauranga City Council to see what they had to say about the matter.

'We do not have a formal policy on the installation of sun shades on council playgrounds, as our decision-making on parks and reserves is instead guided by a series of reserve management plans,” says Parks and Recreation acting manager Warren Aitken.

'At a meeting, council will consider adopting the draft Tauranga Reserves Management Plan, which proposes to merge all existing management plans into one.”

The draft plan includes the following statements related to sun shade:

• Given the capital and maintenance costs associated with artificial shade, council's preference is to provide shade by natural rather than artificial means.
• Vegetation for shade to provide protection from the weather may be provided, where appropriate, giving consideration to the role of the reserve and the provision of facilities.
• Provision, design, and location of sun shades will be decided on a caseby-case basis, taking into account a wide range of factors, which are listed in the plan.

No shade covering the playground on the Waterfront on The Strand but there are trees nearby.

When asked if the council is looking at putting up sun shades, Warren says that the draft plan states that we prefer to provide shade by natural rather than artificial means.

'It also states that council will continue to review shade requirements across the reserve network and progressively seek to increase shade cover over time.

'Council will focus on providing vegetation for shade at reserves where people are likely to spend long periods of time.

'Should the plan be adopted, funding to start its implementation will be sought through the 2021 to 2031 Long Term Plan.”