Operations at Whanganui’s William Birch Reserve handed to community group

A community group will take over operations of the 6796sq m William Birch Reserve.

Whanganui District Council has handed over operations of a rural reserve to a community group, with its silt-filled pool set to be cleared out.

The 6796sq m William Birch Reserve is on State Highway 3 near Pākaraka.

At a council meeting on September 16, parks and property manager Tania Henare said the group, Friends of the William Birch Reserve, had approached the council several times about having an active contribution and involvement.

“Up until now, this has been a relatively unsuccessful discussion, largely due to our readiness to partner with this initiative.”

Late last year, the group presented more ideas and the council was confident it had the expertise, time and commitment to “do more than council can do with this reserve”, she said.

The council would provide $18,000 towards clearing out the reserve’s pool, with funding coming from the general parks budget, and the council would still cover $21,000 in annual maintenance costs, Henare said.

All councillors except Michael Law voted in favour of the handover, with Law saying council staff could have got on with the initiative without bringing it before elected members.

Deputy Mayor Helen Craig was absent.

Council chief executive David Langford said there was high public interest in the matter.

“Bringing the report back to you was really an opportunity to put this into the public domain and make it your decision, rather than management just flying under the radar and getting it done,” he said.

Friends spokesperson Richard White told the Chronicle cleaning out the pool would begin as soon as possible, although no dates were confirmed.

Locals had identified a bypass pipe around it for the Ototoka Stream to flow through while the work took place, he said.

“It could be a pond with a concrete surround, or we could let the water flow through the bottom. There’s also a bit of a waterfall feature when the water bypasses.

“That side of things is still a work in progress.”

However, swimming would never be an option again, he said.

Whanganui Rural Community Board chairman David Wells said the reserve had “been a real issue” for his past three terms.

“We’ve seen no progress until quite recently,” he said.

“It really is a win-win and the local community has stepped up to take ownership.”

White, who initiated the last pool cleanout in 2009 with Pākaraka Pā kaumatua Ray Hina, said members of the group drove past the reserve daily or weekly.

“It’s not an onerous task to keep an eye on things and it won’t take too much work to knock it into shape.

“The pool is like an ugly pimple in the middle and we want to sort that out as well.”

Mike Tweed is a 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.