Eastern Bay Community Foundation has jumped on board the mission to save Onepu Community Park.

Save Onepu Community Park group spokesperson Sarah van der Boom says the foundation's support is a huge step toward achieving the goals of the campaign to keep the community park in public use.

'If Kiwis can buy a beach in Tasman Bay, why can't we buy a community park in Onepu.

'Having the fund being held by the community foundation will mean we can leverage other funding as well.”

Community Foundation chairman Scottie McLeod has confirmed it will provide use of the foundation's bank account to hold funds for Save Onepu Community Park fundraising.

Foundation executive officer Rosemary Sloman says, initially, this account will be as a 'pass-through fund”, meaning the foundation will hold funds on the community's behalf until the community is ready to make a bid on the Onepu Community Park site.

'We (the foundation) have been looking at several projects and this is really timely.

'We've been building our resource over the past 10 years to the point where we're starting to make a difference. This just seemed a really good way for us to provide a vehicle for this to be successful.”

Sarah has been the first to put her money where her mouth is with a $1000 donation.

She says the goal is to raise enough money to purchase the 71.83 hectare site outright, about $1.8 to $2 million, by October 13.

Onepu Community Park has been established over the past 12 years on 72ha of privately owned land, 60ha of which is planted in radiata pine.

Earlier this year, Norwegian pulp and paper company Norske Skog sold the property to Shane Le Prou, who has since put it on the market and says it will be closed to the public as of mid-October.

The park has established trails that are well used by Whakatāne mountain bikers, a restored wetland, arboretum and donated artwork. It is popular with dog walkers and wheelchair accessible.

The park has been subject to thousands of hours of hard work by volunteers, funding from charitable trusts and investment from Bay of Plenty Regional Council.

Whakatāne Mountain Bike Club president Richard Hamer says the club has been speaking directly with Shane, who has not told them they could not use the park from any particular date.

'His concern was with insuring the park against fire risk and he told us we would not be able to use it during the dry months. That would be in mid-summer as far as I can tell. We will keep on using it until we are told otherwise.”

Shane has made an offer to sell the park to Whakatāne District Council, but Richard says he did not think it's fair for anyone to put pressure on the council to purchase the park at such short notice.

He says the club's first priority was still to have a mountain bike park in or close to Whakatāne.

'Until that happens, as a club we would love to continue using Onepu Park and are in support of the Save Onepu Community Park group.

'Our club has created most of the mountain bike tracks in the park. We just want to dig tracks and ride and do so legally.”

The property is advertised on Trade Me with October 13 as the closing tender date.

'We researched several different funding and investment options and asked the community for expressions of interest on different options. The philanthropic community-owned option was the standout favourite,” says Sarah.

Rosemary says in the event the purchase bid was successful, a long-term endowment fund could be started for Onepu Community Park, and this would include funds from the harvest of the trees in about eight years' time.

'The Onepu Community Park Endowment Fund would continue to grow and fund maintenance and facilities in the park, until the next harvest is ready. This would create a perpetual community facility that has the ability to grow and change in accordance with the needs of the district in years ahead.

'The bank account is a separate account to others, so all funds will be easily tracked and traced, and will be provided with a tax- deductible donation receipt.”

Anyone wishing to donate to the fund can make payments to Kiwibank account number 38-9016-0292432-06, with Onepu Park in the particulars and code 34/22. The donors name can be entered as a reference.

Sarah says if the foundation is not successful in its tender for the park, the donations can be returned to the donors.

If the tender is successful, the foundation will own the park as an asset of the fund which is owned by the Onepu Charitable Trust.

Donors are encouraged to email their contact details to support@easternbaycommunityfoundation.nz to ensure the receipting process is simple and swift.

-Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air