The Mercury Bay Skate Park Trust has been working hard over the summer period raising funds for the new skate park in Whitianga. Boosted by fundraising initiatives at the recent Whitianga Summer Concert, including sausage sizzles, watermelon sales and bar staff assistance at the concert, plus external funding, it has now raised $152,000, which is over its target goal of $150,000.

The Trust is still awaiting the outcome of two more funding applications to Trust Waikato and the New Zealand Community Trust.

“A huge congratulations to the Skate Park Trust for all its efforts in raising funds, you have done an extremely good job and all your hard work has paid off," says Rekha Giri-Percival, our Mercury Bay Community Board Chairwoman.

Meanwhile, the new skate park is being designed by Australian company Convic, a well-established global leader in youth-space design that has created more than 700 action sports facilities around the world.

The total design cost of the Whitianga skate park is just under $30,000 and the construction cost is estimated at approximately $600,000. Our Council is contributing approximately $20,000 to the design and $450,000 towards the construction through existing budgets allocated in our 2018-2028 Long Term Plan for the Mercury Bay Ward.

The plan is to build the park next to the existing one at Taylors Mistake/Whakau Reserve, which will be removed. This means the new skate park will be situated along the pedestrian thoroughfare creating a strong connection between the town centre to the harbour, which has helped shape the design layout and accentuates links between people and water.

The concept design is separated into three main areas:

1. A street drain run, which follows the Carina Creek edge and consists of low height obstacles maintaining the views through the facility.

2. An open flow section, consisting of beginner to intermediate transition features, with some unique and challenging obstacles.

3. An isolated bowl section, consisting of intermediate to advanced quarter pipes.

The design incorporates three main connector paths into the facility: one along Carina Creek, one from the town centre plaza and one from the town hall. Seating has also been incorporated into some of the facility’s platform areas.

The site presents an opportunity to incorporate important cultural and landscape elements, as well as integrating youth needs with other users of the Whitianga town centre and waterfront area. In this way the skate park will be an integral part of the town centre, helping to create a dynamic social hub for the whole community.

The building consent has been granted and we are also carrying out an archaeological assessment, through an application to Heritage New Zealand, for an authority to do the earthworks. The design concept has now been finalised with stakeholders and the detailed design is well progressed. We are making construction companies aware of the upcoming work and hope to start construction in July – August 2020.

Donations can be deposited into the Mercury Bay Skate Park Trust bank account below.

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