Spruce-up of Whanganui’s Kowhai Park would require external funding, district council says

Attempts to modernise and change the park in the past have been met with strong opposition. Photo / Bevan Conley

A decade-long development of Kowhai Park could cost around $6 million, according to a business case for a revamp of the ageing attraction.

Whanganui District Council is investigating options to spruce up the popular park following calls from the public to modernise it.

Council property and open spaces general manager Sarah O’Hagan told a council workshop for its Long Term Plan (LTP) that conversations had been held with iwi groups about how to better connect the park with the Whanganui River.

“There is some real opportunity there,” she said.

“The playground equipment is also 60-odd years old.

“We will have to replace some of it soon, and the replacement would look nothing like it does now because safety standards have moved on.”

She said the project would take significant funding and time.

“Therefore, we should go into that thinking about how we run a decent co-design and co-funding process.”

Two sites where co-funding had been successful were Destination Play at New Plymouth’s Kāwaroa Park and - on a smaller scale - the Te Āhuru Mōwai playground in Marton, O’Hagan said.

“That [Te Āhuru Mōwai] started back in 2018 when two local mothers wanted playgrounds to be improved for their children,” O’Hagan said.

“They approached the [Rangitīkei District Council] and partnered up, then fundraising activities began.”

Te Āhuru Mōwai opened in April 2021 and had a final cost of $1.3m.

Only $250,000 of that came from the council, which also provided project management assistance.

It received an excellence prize in the ‘Education and Play’ category at the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architecture Awards the following year.

Council senior parks manager Wendy Bainbridge has prepared a business case for seed funding to “recruit the necessary expertise to co-design a modern Kowhai Park”.

It will be considered for the council’s LTP.

Bainbridge’s report estimates a design would cost $600,000 and development would cost $6m over 10 years.

It said attempts to modernise and change the park in the past had been met with strong opposition, particularly from groups who had played a part in its development.

“For many, the iconic status held by this park is in the fact that it harks back to more simple times and that there has been strong community involvement.”

Whanganui District Council property and open spaces general manager Sarah O'Hagan at Kowhai Park. Photo / Bevan Conley

O’Hagan said modernising the park was a double-edged sword for that reason.

Some loved Kowhai Park because of its history, but modern parks offered different kinds of play and experiences, she said.

Councillor Michael Law said parents he had spoken to didn’t want to get rid of the old features to put new ones in.

“We have a lot of land there that is just grass.

“Are you thinking of adding - through consultation - over time or replacing?”

Council chief executive David Langford said a consultation process would be run before any decisions were made.

“Is it new? Is it a blend of keeping some of the old that is fit for purpose and adding to it?

“All of those things are discussions we ought to have with the community first.”

If the council embarked on the project, it would be conditional on securing a certain amount of external funding, and it wouldn’t proceed to a build stage until that target was met, he said.

Whanganui Deputy Mayor Helen Craig said the park had experienced major flooding in the past, which came at a cost and meant it was unable to be used.

Faecal contamination due to flooding was also an issue in the past.

“If we were to spend some real money on a play area, would that still be the place we would put it?” she said.

Councillor Ross Fallen said he had a bad experience with the park’s turtles at the age of 5 and he hoped they would go.

He thought it would be foolish to consider improving, altering or enhancing the park “when we know it’s a known flooding risk”.

Langford said it wasn’t without precedent that parks were designed specifically to be flooded.

It was a good way to use land that couldn’t be used for residential development.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.