Draft Concept Plan Approved

We received some great ideas and feedback from visitors and users of Dudley Park as well as from the wider community during the consultation for Community Features at Dudley Skate Park during July this year.

Staff took on board this feedback and developed a draft concept plan.

This plan was presented to the community at the Wai Youth Summer Festival event at Dudley Park on Saturday 11 February 2021. Council staff asked for further feedback on the ideas presented to make sure we were on the right track.

The Rangiora-Ashley Community Board then approved the draft plan at their meeting on 9 June 2021 and it can be viewed by clicking on the link in the documents section to the right of the page.

The next steps are to begin development of the area by installing the new features which include:

• A volleyball area (volleyball was identified during consultation as an activity that could be enjoyed by all family members)
• Raised decking alongside the skate park
• Additional seating, including a grassed mound seating area.

This is a youth-led project proposed by the Waimakariri Youth Council, and is overseen by the Council's Community Team and Greenspace Team.

The Council have allocated $20,000 towards the project through the Annual Plan process, with the remaining funding to be raised by the Youth Council through fundraising activities.

The Council will begin installing features from the initial budget, and additional features will be installed over time as funds become available.

It is hoped that the new features will make the area more inviting for a wider range of users and family groups, no matter what their age.

We will be carrying out a user survey before the new features are installed, to evaluate how people currently feel about using the area, and what some of the barriers might be if they avoid it. Then a few months after the new features have been in place, we will carry out a second survey to see if people's feelings have changed to help us for future projects like this. We will update this page with the survey later this year.