Thumbs down given to skateboard park bid | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

A proposal that started out rather innocuously and quickly escalated into an acrimonious issue that divided Greytown was settled in less than half an hour yesterday.
South Wairarapa District Council voted against allowing a skateboarding park to be built within the precincts of Soldier's Memorial Park in Kuratawhiti St while agreeing to look at the potential of other sites in town.
The decision brings to an end months of wrangling over the suitability of Soldier's Memorial Park for skateboarding and was welcomed by Kuratawhiti St residents, Greytown Community Heritage Trust and the RSA who joined forces to fight against it.
Yesterday, councillors heard final submissions in person from those who wanted the skatepark and those against and quickly decided to decline it, based on recommendations made by planning and environment manager Rachel Hornsby. Only Featherston ward councillor Dean Davies was in favour of the skatepark being built on land within Soldier's Memorial Park and asked for his vote along those lines to be recorded in the minutes. Making a final plea to have the skatepark application declined, Steven Bailey, who lives across the road from the intended venue, said it had been an ill-conceived idea and the council would be ''irresponsible'' if it was granted. He said he had been struck by the level of anger against putting the skateboard park where it was planned.
There had been no accurate figures put forward by those backing the skatepark to prove it was needed or the use it would get. Army officer Graeme Tod repeated the concerns of RSA members who were outraged at the prospect of a memorial park for fallen soldiers being used by skateboarders. He said the park, camp ground and bush reserve was the finest of any town in the country and that, apart from the insult to the memory of the dead, there was ''no crying'' need for a skatepark. The proposal flew in the face of the council's own management plan for Soldier's Memorial Park.
The chairman of the Greytown Community Heritage Trust, Matt Adams, said beside the historical aspects there were other reasons to oppose the skatepark.
One was the effect building the concrete skatepark close to an avenue of lime trees would have on the trees, and there was the ''noise factor''.
Mr Adams said the trust would like to see ''stronger protection'' for Soldier's Memorial Park in general.
Speaking in support of the memorial park site was Mike Dennes of the Greytown Park Development committee who said another venue, at Arbor Reserve, had been looked at but voted down for various reasons, as had the original location in Soldier's Memorial Park that was closer to the children's playground.
Mr Dennes said his committee didn't think a skatepark would be disrespectful to fallen soldiers and that the original intent of the park was for public recreation.
Two skateboarders, Dominic Hawke and Jack Gibbs, were also in attendance and spoke of having to go out of town to skate. They were happy for the skatepark to be anywhere in town and a recent survey had shown there would be 100 young people interested in using it.
South Wairarapa mayor Adrienne Staples said although councillors were voting against the Soldier's Memorial Park proposal there was support for a skatepark elsewhere.