One of the founders of the park, Bill Clark, said the couple had since sold off the carbon credits for the property and has offered to sell the land to Whakatāne District Council for more than they paid for it.
They had notified users of the park, including Whakatāne Mountain Bike Club, that they will close the park to the public from mid-October onward.
Among the reasons they gave for the closure was that they could not get insurance for the property, as public use was considered a fire hazard.
Local Democracy Reporting contacted Le Prou, who said he would rather not discuss the matter at the moment, except to say that they had offered it to the council, and he was waiting for that process to go through.
"We are more than happy to talk about it after the council has had a bite at it. We've ended up the meat in the sandwich in this and we're going to work our way through our options."
Clark said he had been aware for six weeks of Le Prou's intention to close the park to the public and that Le Prou had told him he had not been aware of the extent of the community's use of the land as a park when he bought it.
"He owns six other forests that don't have parks on them."
Clark, together with other park users Sarah van der Boom and Lyndal Kennedy, were launching a Facebook campaign asking people to show their love for the community park.
To have your say, visit the Onepu Community Park Facebook page.
"Now it is up to the community to show how much they value this park. I'm reminded of the Joni Mitchell song that goes, 'you don't know what you've got till it's gone'," Clark said.
Going by an electronic counter on one of the gates, he estimated that more than 20,000 people used the park every year and while the Whakatāne Mountain Bike Club was the main user, it was also popular with walkers, particularly people wanting to walk their dogs and people with accessibility issues.
He said he had at least two major charitable trusts prepared to grant more than $200,000 to improvements to the park if it was on publicly owned land.
Van der Boom, who was standing for Bay of Plenty Regional Council's Eastern Bay constituency, said she was aware the mountain bike club had been working with Whakatāne District Council toward the creation of a mountain bike facility nearer to town, "but this is a recreational asset that already exists".
Council general manager community experience Georgina Fletcher said to purchase the Onepu forest block at an asking price of $2.2 million (for example), the council would need to borrow the purchase price in full.
The approximate interest on the purchase price would be $132,000 per annum. The debt servicing cost would be around a 0.25 percent increase in rates for the term of the loan (based on a 25-year term loan, and interest rates/rates per the 2021-2031 long-term plan).
Rangitaiki ward councillor Gavin Dennis said he could understand people's concern as there were a lot of mountain bike riders in Whakatāne who were desperately looking for somewhere to ride.
He appreciated the work done by Clark and others to create the park.
"When it was being conceived - and Bill Clark was one of the main ones pushing it and did a lot of work there - he did it in the knowledge that it was private land. And as a regional councillor he had every opportunity to get the regional council to purchase it, as they do with a lot of those recreational type parks."
He said when the current owner bought the property, he did so "knowing full well that it was used as a recreational area".
"Now that that person wants to sell it, everyone thinks that we're going to find money out of thin air to pay for it. If it was up to me, and council had $2 million sitting around, I'd say 'let's buy it'. But, for $2 million to be put onto the rates, when it's not been planned, it's a bit of a struggle. We can't just find $2 million at the drop of a hat. There's so much other desperate need in the community."
He suggested if the estimated 20,000 users dipped into their own pockets, fundraised and got business sponsorship, they would easily be able to raise enough money to purchase the park.
"I don't use it and I'd contribute $50 and I'm sure many more people would, also. Compared to the cost of their bikes it's a fraction of the price."
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
