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Rodney Local Board has approved grants totalling $38,000 for the planned Mahu Bike & Skate Park and a security camera upgrade at the Warkworth Showgrounds.
Members voted to allocate $20,000 for planning, surveys and reports to prepare the resource consent application, and detailed design for a proposed skatepark and bike trails on land to the north of the showgrounds, at the April Board meeting.
Mahurangi Community Sport and Recreation Collective board member and Bike & Skate project leader Nicola Jones said she hoped the necessary work, which would include site surveys, planning advice and stormwater and geotechnical reports, would happen in the next three months or so.
“We won’t go at it gung ho till we know we’ve got the money in the bank, but it’s been approved and that’s great,” she said. “Then it’s getting back to the designer and ironing out a detailed design, then we can move into the project and look at funding options.”
A concept design for the park was drawn up in February last year following the granting of $12,000 by Rodney Local Board in 2017.
Ms Jones added that the proposed multisport facility at the showgrounds, which was granted $150,000 by the Board last July for design, planning and preliminary engineering and site works, was at a similar pre-planning stage to the bike and skate park.
“The multisport facility is still going through the groundwork with the money that was allocated last year,” she said. “We’re thinking that because they join together, we’ll try to do a lot of the work simultaneously, as they’re similar projects.”
She said the collective was still looking at a couple of internal planning issues for the multisport facility, in terms of its design, facilities and making sure all areas worked effectively.
“It’s a little bit of a slow wheel turn, but once we’ve ironed out these things, it will be happening,” she said.
The remaining $18,000 of the Local Board grant will go towards extending security camera coverage at the showgrounds beyond the rugby club, following a spate of break-ins and vandalism at the grounds,
Board members heard that the sports collective was concerned about unauthorised use of carparks by heavy trucks as a rest-stop and transfer area, as well as dogs being off-leash and fouling the playing fields.
“We have been having issues over the past six to 12 months of vehicles getting onto the field and doing doughnuts,” Ms Jones added after the meeting. “The pony club was broken into, the rodeo club broken into … This is a huge value asset that Council has invested in with just one entry point in and out, so we need to see who’s coming in.”
