The Houghton Bay play area went out to public consultation in September-October of 2022 with two concept designs. There was an even split between option one and option two, and we were unable to break this deadlock.

Three designers within the community then suggested a community picnic to talk through the project and find a way forward. This occurred in December 2022 and from that a third proposal, that was site specific, was the popular choice of attendees. A workshop on the day then informed the design brief of a third design.

Following the community picnic, we sought input from iwi and separately engaged the services of a mana whenua designer. The result of this was largely a design with bespoke equipment. After investigating whether this could be engineered to meet compliance to the NZ Playground standards and kept within the available budget, it was not deemed viable to deliver on this design. An amended design, influenced by the bespoke design, was then created with available off-the-shelf equipment, but it was felt by the three community designers, that this was an unsatisfactory version, to compete with the original two designs.

One of the local designers, Adam Ellis, then put his hand up and created a third concept design that we can deliver on. The option three renders are based on this work.

We are asking the community which of the three designs they prefer, and the reasons why. We will go with the design that has the most votes. Have your say here.