Whanganui District Council looking for ways to bring Kai Iwi flying fox back into action

Information is being gathered due to community hopes of reinstalling the flying fox at the Kai Iwi Beach playground. Photo / Mike Tweed

Whanganui District Council is reviewing the best way to potentially bring back the flying fox at the Kai Iwi Beach playground.

The council are gathering information on the best path forward after a petition with 605 signatures was submitted by Kai Iwi residents.

The flying fox was taken down and its platform was blocked off in mid-September when an engineer’s report found the backstay wire was broken and the weight of the wire was pulling its platform forward.

Kai Iwi residents Sharron and Colin Caseley created the petition after the popular playground feature was taken down, looking for support to have it returned to the park.

Sharron said the petition ended up getting far more than the 250 signatures they had hoped for.

Rural board representative for Kai Iwi, Michael Dick, said of those signatures, 90 per cent came from people outside of Kai Iwi, so the desire to have the flying fox back stretched beyond beach locals.

Whanganui District Council chief executive David Langford said the council wanted to get the flying fox back, but if it were to be reinstalled, it would have to be so it was safe for those riding it.

“At this stage, we’ve not made a decision to remove it for good, we’re just looking at alternative options so that we can put it back and make sure it’s safe for the kids to use, which is our number one priority,” he said.

The council’s general manager of community, property and places, Sarah O’Hagan, said the council was currently gathering information about the site and the best type of structure and location for a potential return of the flying fox.

“I imagine that there will be a suite of options, ranging from fixing the current structure, to a new structure and location,” O’Hagan said.

All of the options would be assessed on their merits, including health and safety considerations, and once the information was compiled and assessed, the council’s findings would be relayed back to the community.

Langford said they hoped to have the flying fox back up as soon as possible.

Dick echoed this sentiment.

“People are coming here going, ‘Oh, where’s the flying fox gone?’”

Investigations into options for the flying fox are expected to continue into 2023, O’Hagan said.