At the council’s 2023-24 annual plan budget deliberations yesterday, councillors voted to develop concept plans for the upgrade of three popular playgrounds — Marlow Park, Woodhaugh Gardens and Mosgiel Memorial Park — instead of building a new modern playground from scratch.
Cr Jim O’Malley said the move to use the existing playgrounds was "a no-brainer" and he hoped the existing spaces would become "the three jewels in our city crown" as the concepts were developed.
He said the Margaret Mahy Family Playground in Christchurch was already a tourist destination, and there was no reason for the council not to aspire for the existing playgrounds in Dunedin to become as popular.
"What if we present the three jewels in the crown? It’s a completely different experience if you come to Dunedin and over three days you can experience the three different parks," Cr O’Malley said.
Marlow Park’s equipment — often referred to as the Dinosaur Park due to the large dinosaur-shaped slide — was considered to be deteriorating and outdated. It has been around since the 1970s, with the original design concept drawn by a member of the Rotary Club of Dunedin South in 1966.
Cr Steve Walker said he appreciated high costs would be involved with developing concepts for all three spaces, but the council needed to focus on keeping playgrounds relevant to their users.
"This is to continue the process, and to show families in Dunedin we want to move forward on play spaces," Cr Walker said.
The report stated the playgrounds already had existing supporting infrastructure in place, so the cost of refurbishment would likely be lower than constructing a new playground.
Cr Lee Vandervis said although the council was in a position to carry out the concept plans, he did not believe under the current budget it was a responsible fiscal decision.
"Saying that, it’s a concept at this stage. When we don’t have the money to carry the concept out, to me [it] is just premature," he said.
"To to borrow from Kāi Tahu mana whenua, Mō tātou, ā, mō kā uri ā muri ake nei — for us and our children after us," Cr Laufiso said.
The council received 1639 submissions in the first round of its "destination" playground public consultation in October, which showed 977 submitters wanted a new playground in the city.
Among the existing destination playgrounds, updating Marlow Park was the most popular response with 935 submitters supporting that option.
Councillors hoped taking a staged approach to the destination playgrounds would allow for more public feedback when the design concepts were complete.
