Better playgrounds, more pathways, opportunities to play basketball, more greenery, and spaces that work well for lots of different people.
That's what the people of Welcome Bay have told Tauranga City Council they would like to see for their parks and reserves.
They now have a further opportunity to refine some of these ideas.
'Through Council's Whakahou Taketake Vital Update in 2020, and this year's Long-term Plan, we heard loud and clear that you value your parks and want to see more opportunities to enjoy them,” says open space and community facilities planner Clare Abbiss.
'We have some funding to improve parks within Welcome Bay and we are embarking on an exciting journey to work with the community to provide better open spaces.
'We'd love for you to email us with your ideas or fill out a survey.”
Based on what the community has already told Council, parks audits, and previously identified improvements, some of the ideas on the table for feedback include:
-More seats, picnic tables, pathways and cycleways, shade, plantings, and drinking fountains
-Development of Owens Park, which could include a new playground, new toilets, pump track, half basketball court, pathways, stream enhancements and better connections with Welcome Bay School
-Circuit training equipment at Waipuna Park
-An improved playground, pathways, and toilets at Tye Park
-Biking facilities, improved playground and pathways at Selwyn Park
-An improved playground and the addition of a barbecue at Waitaha Reserve.
In December, Council staff will be at various Welcome Bay parks and reserves where people can give feedback on the proposed parks improvements.
'We'd like to know which projects people would like to see delivered now, which are more important, and which are less important,” says Clare.
'This will include projects we can deliver quickly, and longer-term projects that will involve detailed design and more discussion with the community.”
Using community feedback, a prioritised list of parks improvement projects will be finalised in early 2022, and ‘quick-win' improvements will get under way immediately after that.
Detailed design work and planning for the longer-term projects will begin, and the community will have the opportunity to be involved in the designs.
A map showing the parks and reserves in Welcome Bay. Image: Tauranga City Council.
How to have your say:
Email your ideas at welcomebayparks@tauranga.govt.nz.
Fill out an online feedback form (this will be available from Friday December 3).
Tell your thoughts to Council staff who will be at various Welcome Bay parks and reserves throughout December.
Staff will use ipads to capture your feedback. Covid-19 safety protocols will be in place.
For more information, visit Council's website www.tauranga.govt.nz/welcomebayparks
2 comments
What a joke?
Posted on 02-12-2021 21:32 | By Get our roads
A barbeque at Waitaha Reserve, so what, do you book it online, what a joke. Surely you can put more than A BBQ out there considering their population which you are growing by the minute with more resource consents and no improved roading to the area. As usual, you think a park and 1 BBQ is gonna cut it. My goodness, you have an awesome lot of visionless people at TCC dont you, just refuse to look at the big picture and keep as they say "kicking the roading can down their miserable one road in, one road out problem". Again, why is roading infrastructure not on your RADAR, are you ALL BLIND. Yes, there are kids and schools out there, but parents need to get to work too, in Tauranga, Mount, Tauriko, how many times do you need to hear it.
What about maintenance costs
Posted on 02-12-2021 21:57 | By Get our roads
It's all very well to have parks and drinking fountains (which by the way I would avoid at all costs due to COVID) but the thinking around these ambitious wants is not sustainable. People want all these facilities for use in the summer season and yet winter would see these facilities deserted. At what cost to the Council to maintain, yep, rates. To have lawnmower drivers mowing parks all year round just to service summer season is uneconomic for a start. The reason kids need to go to parks is because you let people build homes with no lawns where the kids can play, because the sections are so small and houses on ridiculous terrain. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, not yours by the way.
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