Tait Park is a pocket of Avondale neglected for too long, but here comes a few dedicated locals, writes Kieran Nash.
Tait Park in Avondale is not the most inviting place to eat lunch. Flanked by Rosebank Rd and Ash St, it features a rough, gravelly concrete pad on which a few sad-looking pergolas are scattered. Fenced in by a few trees, the sliver of public land looks more parking lot than park.
That is destined to change in the next few years with a group of dedicated locals securing $2000 to start planning a $20,000 park transformation called the Tait Lifespace Garden Project. Johan van Ekeren is one of the prime instigators of the project.
"This needs to be a park because, otherwise, there will be apartments here. This is for the people who don't have anywhere to sit and eat their lunch. The park will be a focal point for Avondale, otherwise it just melts into that Auckland blandness," says Mr van Ekeren.
Avondale Community Board member Catherine Farmer says the park has been "overlooked" by council in the past but is now second in a priority list of small local improvements that need funding.
"It was listed as a priority by the Auckland City Council in 2005, so it's been left to residents to kick-start the process and they've done that with widespread community support," she says. "It's a good example of how a dedicated community group can put forward a proposal to be acted upon by a community board."
Long-time Avondale resident Imi Tovia has also been involved in the park project. Reading a public notice that said the park could be put up for sale to a private developer was enough to spur her into action.
"When I read that, I checked if it was going to be used as apartments and we thought we'd get working and get ideas from people."
How speedily the group gets the park is up to the community board and how it prioritises the project, she says. "We're very new so this is the first time we've participated in a community board funding round."
Funding manager Helen Alcock says the initial $2000 pays for council workers to visit the park to see what needs to be done then to get quotes to see how much the work will cost.
There is a budget of up to $50,000, but the scoping process determines a more accurate estimation of the project's cost, she says.
The proposed work includes installing a large, circular, cottage garden feature and three more plant beds, removing all existing pergolas and building four lunch-seating areas.
The council will also open up the two pedestrian walkways to Tait Park from Rosebank Rd and improve the two nature walk zones.
Park life
Tait Park is named after William John Tait, Avondale Borough's mayor from 1923 to 1927. It was Avondale's first municipal playground for children.
In 1973, the park was cut in half to make way for the Ash St extension to New Lynn. The
council removed the playground equipment and other park features when the road was
built.
