South Wairarapa councillor Martin Bosley, Sid Kempton, Deb Dennes, and councillor Alistair Plimmer at the site of the new Greytown wheels park where construction work is underway. Photo: LDR / EMILY IRELAND
When Greytown resident Deb Dennes first picked up the fight to get the town's first skate park built, she had visions of her then 6-month-old being one of the many children to use it.
Eighteen years on, and although her kids have grown up, the ground has finally broken, and construction on the wheels park is well underway at the corner of Cotter and Pierce streets.
"It's super exciting to see that our kids will finally have what all the kids in Wairarapa have had for decades," Dennes said.
After battling for progress and "throwing our hands up in the air", she passed the torch to fellow Greytown resident Sid Kempton, who has been pushing the project along for more than a decade.
"I still remember 16 years ago Deb and her husband Mike came to my house and they had a cardboard box of all the work they had done to that point and their parting words were, 'good luck'," Kempton said.
As a parent and skateboarder, Kempton was pleased he had been able to keep the momentum for the project going.
Despite "ups and plenty of downs", ground has broken on the site and stage one of the Greytown Wheels Park was on track to be completed by the end of October.
Approved as part of South Wairarapa District Council's 2021-31 Long Term Plan, the project was part-funded by council to the value of $1 million, with the balance to be raised by the community for further stages.
The council funds were from developer contributions and could only be used for the development of reserves and open spaces.
Councillor Alistair Plimmer said it was this project that was one of the driving reasons he stood for council in 2019.
At the time, he said council's support of the wheels park was "deadlocked" and "going nowhere".
He and fellow Greytown ward councillors had helped push the project along over the past two trienniums.
First-term Greytown councillor Martin Bosley said being able to see tangible progress on the park was a good thing.
"It makes you feel good about being on council."
The wheels park was being built by Convic Creative Community, which had carved a name for developing more than 800 community spaces around the world, including parks in Avalon and Auckland, as well as Australia and Dubai.
An agreement was previously signed with another contractor in August 2023, with construction set to begin at the start of this year, but the contractor withdrew from the project.
Stage one, which would be completed in a few months, would deliver the core elements of the wheels park suitable for kids to use.
The staged construction meant additions to the park would happen as community funding became available, and the park would be usable at the end of each phase.
- Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
