Grey Lynn - the park that time (or the council) forgot

Big plans for Grey Lynn's rundown park have rolled slowly to a standstill. Rebecca Lewis reports
It's the park that time forgot - or rather, the park the council forgot.
Grey Lynn Park should be nearing the end of a five-year, $1.9 million overhaul of play equipment, paths, entrances and tree planting. Instead, it's still five years and $900,000 away because of Auckland City Council's ``prioritising'.
``We are deeply worried about the park and we have grave concerns for its future as it exists now,' says Kris MacPherson, a local landscape architect and member of Grey Lynn Park Advisory Group.
She and seven other residents have been campaigning for years for improvements. ``The existing fabric of the park has totally deteriorated because it has not been maintained at all,' she says.
``The council began redeveloping the park and they attended to some projects, but many of them have not been completed and it has led to a fragmentation of what used to be a fantastic park.'
One Grey Lynn resident, Nicola, visits the park every day with her daughter, Amy, even though she does not feel safe in its ``dodgy' surroundings.
She believes the toilets need upgrading, that the park benches should be replaced and the playground spruced up.
``Generally it's not too bad, otherwise I wouldn't come here every day,' she says. ``But, when you take a long, hard look at the place it looks a bit shoddy and dodgy.
When you compare this park to others around Auckland it's not hard to see that it needs an upgrade.' Since 2004, only $888,520 has been spent on the upgrades - $1 million less than earmarked.
By early this year, Auckland City Council realised it had not budgeted any further capital spending for the park through to 2016. In an effort to address the oversight, the council has applied for $450,000 in 2011-12 and 20012-13.
``Projects such as this are sometimes deferred to allow other high priority projects to proceed,' says councillor Greg Moyle, chairman of the arts, culture and recreation committee.
``The improvements identified for the park, through extensive public consultation in 2003, were very numerous and varied and council officers are recommending further improvements to the park to complete the upgrade works that were originally planned.'
But, for residents and regular park users, the late comeback is not good enough. Ms MacPherson says the council's lack of planning for the park has made it a dangerous place.
``There are so many people that live in the catchment area to the park and this area has grown so intensely over the years,' she says.
``They built a carpark for an extra 30 cars and there was supposed to be a speed table put in for pedestrians to access the park safely from Elgin St, but they haven't. ``It's not really about what money they did or didn't spend. I think it's more about the fact that these projects were ill-researched and then the money was just wasted in the park. Since then, there has been no redesign ... it has just been left as is.'