Waipa District Council is being asked not to spend thousands of dollars replacing around a dozen wooden benches at Te Awamutu and District War Memorial Park – and put money into bollards instead.
But the idea is not being taken up.
Ange Holt
Te Awamutu-Kihikihi Community Board chair Ange Holt recommended the council install bollards at Tawhiao Street and Christe Avenue to prevent vehicles entering the park.
She wants volunteers to repair and repaint the wooden seats, many of which were original.
The World War II memorial park opened in 1955, making some of the benches 69 years old.
Holt told the board’s October meeting she had already had a conversation with council community services manager Brad Ward on the idea of seat maintenance becoming a community led project but “we’re not getting anywhere”.
Brad Ward
“We’re saying to staff thank you for your response, we don’t agree with it, this is an opportunity for savings, we would like to see this proceed,” she added.
A tradesman has already visited the park to replace rusty bolts and done some cosmetic repairs to benches.
“I would have thought that under the current situation we’ve got a bunch of volunteers that are prepared to do this mahi and make sure that we can retain these assets for a bit longer,” Holt said.
“It’s a win-win because that potentially could provide the funding to put in bollards to prevent significant vandalism that we’ve seen.”
Holt said there were now deep wheel ruts in the park after a vehicle had entered and done doughnuts on the grass.
“Nothing has been done to address it. When there’s water, the water will sit in there, and it’s uneven under foot for anyone wanting to play on that field,” she said.
Board member John Wood visited the park with Te Awamutu councillor Lou Brown and the pair have developed a programme of work on top of that includes repairing the memorial fence and maintaining and repainting the benches.
“Priority one at the moment is the fountain,” Brown said.
“The next priority is moving the perfume garden for logistic reasons. It’s falling apart, and we all know that.”
The perfume garden’s wooden retaining wall is rotting. Moving the garden would give more room for ANZAC Day parades.
“It looks terrible,” Holt said.
“There’s nor even any annuals or anything planted in there to make it even look half respectable.”
The pair would also like to organise the town’s service groups to move the rotunda.
Wood said he would like to bring the front fence and benches up to standard by sanding them down and painting them, with the consent of council staff.
“I’ve got an engineer whose given me a good price to do the repairs, and I’ve looked into getting some new wire netting fence,” Wood said.
“I hope we can get the staff on board with this. We’re trying to improve something that’s easy to do. And they can use the budget money somewhere else.”
The council wants to replace memorial park benches
“This is massive,” said board member Sally Whitaker. “This gets the buy in of the community. I’m all in support. People are very fond of Memorial Park, and they want to be involved, they want to give it some loving, tender care.”
In a statement provided by council’s communications’ team, Ward declined the bollards offer.
“We need to replace assets that have reached the end of their useful lives,” he said.
“We also need to ensure any maintenance is done to meet our policies and standards, and the work complies with all relevant legislative requirements, particularly regarding health and safety.
“It is not possible for council staff to repurpose or reprioritise budgets from one renewal project to another at the request of the community board. We prioritise maintenance and renewals across all of our parks and reserves, and if additional budget was available due to a cancelled or deferred project, or savings found elsewhere, it would be allocated to the project with the highest priority.
“We are well aware of the vandalism at the park and have plans in place to deal with it as budgets permit. The planned renewal of bollards around the car park will be the first step to help reduce vehicles accessing the park.”
The council wants to replace memorial park benches.
