Arnott Heights Playground Development
The Arnott Heights park was originally developed in the 1970s. While the ground is maintained by Grey District Council, the park itself has had little development since its establishment. Until 2022, the ground was unfenced and uneven. The existing playground set is considerably basic and is in aging condition. In spite of this, the park is heavily used by over 35 resident children and many others
The Arnott Heights Community Park originally had:
- One fixed position picnic table
- One slide and tower
- Four-swing swing set
- One sea saw
Image 1: Original aerial of playground equipment
Arnott Heights Community Group
A group of passionate Arnott Heights residents formed a committee to fundraise to upgrade the park, install additional playground equipment and enhance the existing play area. The Community Group is an unincorporated not-for-profit organisation.
The objectives of the group were to;
1) Fundraise for a perimeter fence to ensure the safety of children at the park. This has been successfully achieved.
2) Fundraise for the upgrade of playground amenities. This has been successfully achieved via funding from two Government Agencies.
The upgrade and renewal of the Arnott Heights Community Park will create an attractive asset that can be enjoyed by the Arnott Heights community, the wider community of Greymouth, and visitors to the region.
Playground facilities upgrade
Objectives 1 and 2 have been successfully completed. The below aerial photo (Image 2) showcases the completed playground fantastically, and now the Group is adding more picnic tables and access paths. All work is being supervised by the Council staff so that it meets accessibility and compliance requirements and doesn't unnecessarily add to the maintenance costs of the park.
Image2: Aerial of finished playground equipment installation Continued upgrades
The enthusiasm doesn't stop. The Arnott Heights Committee continue to fundraise money and the Playground is going from strength to strength as neighbours, friends and committee members took to the challenge to create new concrete pathways connecting the South Entrance of the park to both the newly installed East and North picnic tables. GDC staff love supporting and working alongside them. They are all an inspiration!
Seen pictured at the East Side Picnic table are: Leigh Sullivan, Ian Arnott & Bill Cashin
North Side Picnic Table completed-
Celebration in the Park!
Exciting news! The Arnott Heights upgrade of the playground was officially celebrated on Sunday 26th November, with an awesome celebration day at the park.A huge shoutout to the Arnott Heights Community Committee for their dedication and enthusiasm in making this project a reality.Also a huge thank you to the Department of Internal Affairs, Kainga Ora, our local businesses, and all the sponsors who were vital in making the playground upgrade possible. The joint effort from everyone involved meant we could achieve a much better result.
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Latest Aerial View
Very exciting to see the playground coming together! It is now ready for the Level 2 playground inspection for sign off.
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Boxing Complete
The final result is so close!
The final piece of Boxing is complete. Only one last load of soft fall bark required for top up and then a Level 2 Playground Inspection can be arranged for the first week of August 2023.
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Paroa School Year 8 William Pike Challenge Participants
An amazing effort made by all including Paroa School Year 8's students who are competing their William Pike Challenge which requires volunteer work within their community, so they were very enthusiastic to support the Arnott Heights Community.
Thank you for your dedication and speed this enabled to make the most of the fine weather which resulted with very quick turn around deliveries of Truck loads of Soft Fall Bark.
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Arnott Heights playground renovation well underway
It is fantastic to see the work at Arnott Heights playground underway and making great progress.
The 17x22 metre edging with capping is almost complete. The first delivery of 35m3 of soft fall was delivered on Friday 23rd June, and approximately 3 more large truckloads are arranged. The builder is planning to be onsite later this week to commence the groundwork for the playground equipment.
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The people making the Arnott Heights playground development happen
Since the inception of the idea in 2019, the Arnott Heights community led by Leigh Sullivan, have shown great tenacity to see the project through.
The Arnott Heights Community Group has encountered a lot of hurdles, including Covid-19, labour shortages, funding shortages, learnings in safe playground compliance, and a realisation of the actual cost of playgrounds. We had design changes, and further funding applications followed by further design changes. Procurement, and poor weather have also played their part. Despite all these things, the project is underway!
Getting the design right wasn't simple, and it needed to be compliant. Some of the play equipment has ‘fall zones’ where ‘soft fall’ material is required and should be at least 300mm deep. Additional funding was required so that timber edging could be installed to hold the “soft fall” material.The existing playground equipment, although older, is also very expensive to replace. So the play area was redesigned to accommodate the soft fall material and additional playground equipment.
Local businesses, agencies, and Council staff have all contributed to making this project happen. Because of this joint effort, the Arnott Heights community will have an extended and better playground for much less cost than if Council were to pay for one contractor to build the playground.Congratulations to everyone involved and special thanks most of all to Leigh Sullivan, for his selfless effort to make this happen. Leigh isn’t finished yet and has additional plans to add a couple of picnic tables, make a compliant wheelchair-accessible pathway from the gates to the play area, and add some plants and landscaping.The Arnott Heights Community Group: Leigh Sullivan, Bill Cashin, Ian Arnott, Chris Geddes, Tracey Feary, Racheal Thomas, Linda Sullivan, Jennifer Hanifin, Carol Cornall, Jensa Chapman, Liz Manning, Ken Foreman.
Project Design Concept Pictures
Image Fig.1:Full Concept design
Fig 2: Fitness Trail A fitness trail (Fig. 2) was custom designed to give the playground a unique point of difference and offer children healthy and challenging play. A junior rocker and minidome has been added to cater for preschool children.
