Parks consultation going well

Parks and Recreation staff Cassie Scobie and Lesley McCoy visit St Theresa’s School in Bluff.

Initial consultation to help the Parks and Recreation team draft a strategy for our city’s parks and reserves is going strong.

Parks and Recreation staff have visited schools, held workshops, and hosted drop-in sessions, as well as issuing a survey to ICC staff and the public.

More than 120 Council staff responded to the survey, and so far 75 people have filled out the public survey online.

Parks and Recreation Planner Cassie Scobie said there had been nine stakeholder group workshops, four school workshops, two alternate education providers’ workshops, and staff had met with iwi and major city stakeholders.

“We are really pleased with the feedback to date and we still encourage more people to use the tools provided on the website and Facebook to provide us with yourfeedback.

This includes surveys, art competitions, and postcards. We are happy to chat over the phone or meet with community groups or organisations as well so please do contact us.”

Cassie said the Parks and Recreation team had reached out to all schools in the area, but they would like to have the opportunity to visit more secondary schools to ensure they can understand a youth perspective.

The feedback collected to date has enabled the Parks and Recreation team to start forming themes and trends which will help develop its issues and opportunities paper.

Some themes include more sculptures, interactive play, play hubs, collaborating with user groups, and accessibility for all demographics.

When the paper is completed, it will be provided to those who were involved in consultation for further feedback to ensure Parks and Recreation team has interpreted the public voice correctly.

From there, the draft Parks and Recreation Strategy will be developed for Council consideration.

“Feedback has been honest, and we appreciate this as we need to understand issues that both Council and members of the public face when participating in parks and recreation activities,” Cassie said.

There are two public drop-in sessions still to be held: one at the Bluff Service Centre, Saturday August 17, 10.30am – 12.30pm, and one at the Invercargill Public Library on August 22, 12 midday – 2pm.

The survey is available online here: www.surveymonkey.com/r/W89BSYV