Playground solution
Hamilton looked set to move away from destination playgrounds in the next decade.
Now there could be two
– plus a mini one – on the list.
Councillor Rob
Pascoe was credited with finding a neat
$4.27-million solution to build the new child magnets without upsetting the budget.
He proposed finding
$3m in the draft long-term plan budget for three more destination playgrounds.
Two could be built with
$2m taken from the budget for Rototuna’s town centre.
A third could go in the middle of Garden Place, as part of the proposed redevelopment.
‘‘While we would all like to see more [playgrounds] in there, I think two or three is a positive response given our financial circumstances,’’ Pascoe said in debate on Thursday evening.
‘‘I think our destination playgrounds are very, very important, and even more so for a young city.’’
His proposal included $3m of capital spending and $1.27m in operational spending.
Cr Angela O’Leary wanted the full rollout of destination playgrounds to continue and found herself facing a big compromise.
‘‘This will at least give us Hillcrest and Glenview, which are desperately needed,’’ she said.
Councillors had heard from playground fans in Wednesday’s public forum. Max Johns was among them. He told councillors that playgrounds are part of the reason he, his wife and family moved back from Auckland.
On a day at Hamilton Lake playground, Johns said his wife started saying, ‘‘Hamilton’s different to what I thought. You don’t get things like this anywhere else.’’
In debate, Cr Dave Macpherson thanked Pascoe for his neat solution, but said local playgrounds are important – and absent in some suburbs.
‘‘I would like to see ... starting to get some of those gaps filled up with local playgrounds and I think that we can under this proposal.’’
The prospect of drunk people playing on the playground, damaging it, and ending up in ED initially set Cr Leo Tooman against the plan.
In August, councillors were tossing around the idea of no more destination playgrounds in the coming ten years. Instead, the focus would have been on upgrading neighbourhood playgrounds – similar to what was done at Steele Park.
Mayor Andrew King’s recent budget proposal included $3m capital into new or upgraded playgrounds, and $1.27m in operational spending.
But councillors opted for Pascoe’s amendment – voting 10-2, with Crs Garry Mallett and Leo Tooman against it.
When it became the motion, Tooman moved to support it and Mallett was the only councillor to vote against it.
The decision will form part of council’s draft long-term plan, which will go out for public consultation.
‘‘While we would all like to see more [playgrounds] in there, I think two or three is a positive response given our financial circumstances.’’ Councillor Rob Pascoe