Park celebrating nature the place to bee

A new central city park in Dunedin will have a certain buzz about it.

A new bee-themed ''pocket'' park will be built by the Dunedin City Council and the University of Otago in Great King St, between the Captain Cook Hotel and School of Physiotherapy.

Planters with bee-friendly native plants and a honeycomb painted surface will be included in the design, which celebrates nature and biodiversity.

The university is contributing $100,000 towards the project and the council is providing design work, installation, project management and maintenance of the park.

Council principal urban designer Kathryn Ward said the council hoped the new park would spur excitement about more green and pop-up spaces in the central city.

Included in the design was space for food trucks, macrocarpa bench seats, tables, chairs, wheelchair accessible spaces and festoon lighting.

Bike stands were also included and there would be room for cyclists to travel through the park and join the State Highway 1 cycle lane.

Six car parks on the western side of the street would be removed to make way for the space but more parks had been recently installed on the eastern side of the road.

Access to private parking and parking outside the School of Physiotherapy would remain .

University chief operating officer Stephen Willis said the park was a thank you to the people affected by the university's building projects nearby.

The work had affected usual traffic flows and the council's metered parking at a time when both organisations had been discussing upgrades to the tertiary area, Mr Willis said.

The idea for the park came about while the council and university were working on a traffic management plan for the street where the new Faculty of Dentistry and Research Support Facility buildings are being constructed.

Work on the park will start in November and a launch party will be held later in the year.

tim.miller@odt.co.nz