Community gangs up on parks

Residents of the suburbs of Rangeway, Utakarra and Karloo have formed a gang toaudit parks in their localities.

The ‘RUK Parks Gang’ is working closely with the City of Greater Geraldton to decide how the areas’ eight parks should be planned.

As part of the City of Greater Geraldton’s 2029 and Beyond Project, the localities are undergoing a precinct planning program and community members have attended workshops discussing and prioritising facilities and equipment they would like to see in their parks.

City Director of Sustainable Communities, Phil Melling, said residents let the City know in the first workshop that they wanted action taken to improve their parks as soon as possible.

“At the first workshop held in October last year, participants told the City that they wanted to be involved in determining what was needed to improve their parks and to prioritise what gets done first,” he said.

“At the third Community Action Planning Workshop held on November 29 last year, participants identified what amenities were missing in each of the eight parks in the area and then were asked to prioritise the improvements they identified for each park,” said Mr Melling.

Two of the most common improvements the community identified were planting trees for shade and sporting facilities including basketball half courts or football goal poles.

“It was interesting to hear that the 50 plus workshop participants all agreed that more trees needed to be planted across the three suburbs and especially in the parks,” said Mr Melling.

“As a result the City will be planting 200 trees in the area in June; we just need to know from the residents the best places to put them.

“However, the highest priority identified by the community was to build a basketball half court in Clematis Park.”

During the workshop participants were asked to adopt a park and meet with City staff to determine where to plant trees and how to achieve the best economic outcome.

“Five volunteer park representatives recently met with the City’s Manager of Parks Operations to learn where trees could be planted; the process the City follows to install benches or barbecues in parks; how the community could be involved in making improvements to its local park; and how maintenance issues can be reported effectively,” Mr Melling said.

The RUK Parks Gang will be auditing parks in the coming weeks. If you are interested in improving parks in the RUK area call Jess Felix at the City on 9956 6963 to be put in contact with your local RUK Parks Gang representative.