Tauranga City Council helps replace Arataki School playground's wood chip after vandals spread glass

Arataki School's playground plight is almost resolved, all thanks to a good sort seeing a problem and pitching in to help.

The school had been the target of a string of vandalism attacks - multiple fires have been lit on the property and thieves broke into the canteen to steal food.

The most damning hit was when broken glass was littered through the wood chip in the bottom of the school's playground.

This meant the wood chip base had to be completely disposed of and replaced - at a considerable cost to the decile-three school.

However, when Tauranga City Council parks and maintenance team leader Phil Everett read about the vandalism in the Bay of Plenty Times, he thought that he might be able to help by finding out if there was a way to replace the wood chip for free.

Papamoa-based Everett, whose wife is a teacher and who has two young children himself, works with a team of contractors to tend to the 80 or so playgrounds around the city, including Arataki School.

He knew that there would be no cheap way for the school to fix the problem.

"I don't want to swear, but it's quite annoying that [the vandals] had thrown glass in there because they don't know what that means," he said.

Everett mentioned the situation to Mark Smith, the council's parks and recreation manager, and the two decided to present the case to replace the wood chip for free to the executive team at the council.

The executive team were immediately on board and the project was given the go, Smith said.

Smith said the team was shocked that the vandals had thought it was okay to "smash up" something that was for the benefit of children and the wider community.

"There's benefits for everyone for having a playground in a community," said Smith.

Arataki School principal Shelley Blakey said the proposal had "restored my faith in the goodness of people".

The offer came at the right time, as the school was in the middle of calculating the replacement cost of the wood chip and deciding whether to claim insurance. This means the school will save on money and time in getting the playground up and running again for the children.

Blakey said she would like to thank those who supported the school after the attacks.

In addition to donations made to the school and a flood of supportive Facebook messages, members of the community have come to the school to ask if they can help in any way, she said.

"That was really heartwarming ... we feel very proud to be a part of this community."

The school now needs to empty the wood chip from the playground and is on the lookout for someone with a digger who can volunteer to do the job.

If that fails, a working bee will be organised to shovel the wood chip out by hand with school parents and members from the community welcome to join.

A person had already offered to provide a truck to remove the wood chip from the school.