Bid to end playcentre deadlock

An attempt to defuse an escalating tug-of-war over ownership and distribution of equipment used by the now closed Eketahuna Playcentre is likely to be made next week.

At a meeting of Eketahuna Community Board yesterday, chairman Charlie Death said a mediation conference was scheduled between the board and Wairarapa Playcentre Association. Since the closure of the playcentre a stand-off has ensued over what should become of the equipment housed there.

Wairarapa Playcentre Association has, according to the town's community board, adamantly declared the equipment should be taken away and re-distributed to other playcentres under its wing.

But the community board is not having a bar of that, claiming much of the equipment, of which a full inventory has been prepared, was funded by the Eketahuna community.

Board members arranged for the equipment to be taken from the old playcentre to the town's community centre and stashed there under lock and key.

Biddy Fraser-Davies, who sits on the board, said the Eketahuna Playcentre had started as a playgroup intended as a place where mothers could interact with each other and their children and share a cup of coffee.

That "informal arrangement" had unfortunately morphed into a play centre with a " hierarchy and rules".

Deputy board chair Katrina Dimock said it was sad to know the playcentre had closed and things had not worked out well.

"But it doesn't mean a play group couldn't be maintained in the town which would have board support." She said there was not much more that could be done until the mediation meeting when "we will see where we stand on the deadlock". Apart from the possibility of utilising the playcentre's equipment for a revived playgroup, the board had been contacted by an early childhood education company interested in setting up in the old lower school building.

That would be a commercial operation run by a husband and wife in business as Educare Management Ltd, and would be a separate concern from a town playgroup.

The planned mediation meeting comes after a detailed discussion at the May meeting of the community board, which was attended by Wairarapa Playcentre Association president Dee Norling.