Recreation park multi-use centre
Dean Lund and Fleur Murray with sketch plans for the recreational, leisure and cultural centre proposal. Photo: Neil Wilson.
Groups involved in the proposed recreation, leisure and cultural centre at Takaka’s Recreation Park hope that a feasibility study will signal the start of the project in earnest.
More than 30 community groups have been collaborating on tentative plans and wish-lists at a series of public meetings. They want to represent the community’s wishes and they are inviting input from anyone interested.
“We’ve got a great range of groups on board at the moment – from Land Search and Rescue to bridge, and almost everything in between,” says committee spokesman Dean Lund. “The feasibility study, without which the project can’t proceed, will involve the expenditure of public money so it’s important for everyone to have the chance to be involved.”
The committee has enlisted the skills of former landscape architect Fleur Murray to draw up preliminary concept sketches.
“They’re just an idea,” says Fleur. “They show that that the project will work up at the Rec Park. All the sports fields and other things we’ve been talking about will fit there, if we can get the little bit of adjacent land.”
On behalf of the committee, Dean Lund presented a progress report to the March meeting of the Golden Bay Community Board (and received a positive response).
In that report, the committee said that facilities currently available are scattered over several sites in the Bay. Not being dedicated venues, they fail to provide adequate toilet, shower and changing facilities. A number of groups do not have homes, let alone facilities. An example of this is the Golden Bay Football Club, says the report.
“A central facility such as the one proposed will reduce the need for parents to dash from one place to another ferrying their children.”
“All non-sporting activities are also in scattered sites, again with variable suitability for purpose. This limits exposure of those groups to the broader community interaction. The more people participate in community social activities, the more a community bonds and strengthens,” says the committee in the report.
The provision of modern facilities will enable the Bay to host tournaments and invitation events, sporting and non-sporting. A combined facility will also produce efficiencies and cost savings.
The committee has been encouraged by the example of the Moutere Hills Community Centre.
Now in its sixth year of operation, it is generating a small operational surplus.
Steve Mitchell, senior advisor of sport development at Sport Tasman says: “We are offering our community better options around social, recreational and sporting opportunities than we could have ever hoped.
“The TDC has been instrumental in supporting both the establishment and ongoing operations of the centre, and deserves recognition for the great work their staff do in supporting their communities. This is an exciting time and huge opportunity for your whole community.”
For the committee, Dean concluded:
“We think we’ve got everybody who wants to be here on board, but if we haven’t we definitely want to hear about it. The next step in the process is for us prioritise the items on our wish-list. Our next public meeting is in the first week of April. We’ll be advertising it in The GB Weekly.”
Neil Wilson
