About the project
Shorland Park is a community park in Island Bay, with a well-used but ageing play area.
The play area is due for improvements as part of Wellington City Council's renewal programme. See our Play Spaces Policy (2017) for more information.
The approximate budget for this project is $523,000.
Project scope
The play area renewal will focus on:
- Location of the play areas
- Replacing existing play equipment (which doesn't meet current safety standards) with new equipment.
What’s not included
Changes to the Liberty swing plus overall layout and landscape are outside the scope of this project.
What's happened so far
During June and July 2020, we asked the local community for their ideas and suggestions about what they would like to see at Shorland Park.
These were used to shape a draft concept design, which went out for consultation during November and December 2020.
Delays to construction
Due to delays on the play equipment items coming from overseas, we have had to shift the start date from 1 August to mid-November. While these delays are frustrating, unfortunately they aren't uncommon with items coming from overseas due to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 on supply chains
We have planned construction in a two-stage approach, so that some equipment will be open to the public in time for the Christmas break.
Stage one will be from Monday 15 November – Thursday 23 December. Construction begins on refurbished snail, new slide tower structure, one set of swings, and the flying fox.
The second stage of construction will be from Monday 10 January 2022 – Friday 18 February 2022. Whilst we had hoped to be out of the site prior to the Island Bay Festival dates of 12 to 13 February, this is not sufficient time to complete all tasks.
Once the project is complete, we will be proceeding with the decommissioning of the existing pirate ship and toddler play area. These two areas are not compliant to the current standards, and we have invested our funding into bringing the play area together, as requested by the majority of submitters during public consultation.
Shorland Park construction stages (5637 KB)
Final design plan
The final plan has been developed using the feedback we received on the draft concept design.
Shorland Park play area – final design plan (560KB PDF)
The main comments we received were around provision of shade, more swings, retaining the existing snail structure, and asking for the layout to be spread out more than in the concept plan. We have incorporated all these features into the final design.
There are a number of accessible features including all weather safety surfacing, an inclusive swing in addition to the Liberty swing, and the Tipi carousel spinner that is transferrable for users.
Check out this video where the playground designer explains the choices made and why. Please note: In the final plan, the pirate ship has been rotated slightly, but it will stay in the same location.