High ropes course has obstacles to tackle

The proposal for a high ropes course to be built on Palmerston North’s Railway Land has overcome one of a series of obstacles in its path.

Nine months after it first applied for a licence to set up on the land, the Palmerston North City Council has voted to support operator Tekton Ltd’s application.

The next knot that needs to be untangled is that the council needs the consent of Minister of Conservation Maggie Barry before it can grant the licence.

The application has to go through that hoop because the council does not have a reserve management plan in place for the land.

The council has put off approving a draft contract with Tekton, with many councillors objecting to the low price proposed.

At Monday’s full council meeting, councillors Vaughan Dennison, Lew Findlay, Billy Meehan and Annette Nixon voted against supporting the proposal, and Tangi Utikere abstained.

Dennison said the proposed licence fee, of $2000 in the first year and $3000 in the second, was too low for allowing commercial use of a prime piece of public land.

The proposed cost of having a go on the course, at $37 per user, meant just one customer a week would be all it would take to pay for the licence.

Dennison said the price was so high that many members of the community would not be able to afford it.

Findlay earlier told the council’s planning and policy committee he believed the course would provide a temptation and a hazard for young people who had had too much to drink after dark.

Most of the features of the course would be packed away when it was closed and unsupervised, but the main poles and guy ropes would remain in place.

Property manager John Brenkley said Tekton were experienced operators, who knew how to comply with Worksafe rules for leaving the site safe when not in use.

But Findlay said people would still be tempted to climb the poles, and he was worried someone might be killed.

Nixon said she did not believe a commercial venture should be allowed to set up in the reserve.

She said the council had allowed activities like coffee carts to operate on the Manawatu Riverside pathway, but those were temporary features that were easily removed. The high ropes course would be a permanent structure.

The Railway Action Group, which was formed to protect the Railway Land from sale or commercial use, has consistently opposed the location for the high ropes course.

It has made submissions asking for the land left as open green space for everyone to enjoy.

Nixon said the council desperately needed a policy about the commercial use of public land.

The council has asked staff to develop one.

If the council gets approval to grant a licence, the proposal will still need to get a resource consent before it can go ahead.

Brenkley said that consent application would probably have to be publicly notified, inviting formal submissions, and likely go to a public hearing.