Kids share ideas for Halswell skate park

Bowls, table-tops, stairs and quarter-pipes – that's just a few of the items on the wish list for the new Halswell Domain skate park.

Students from Halswell School were this week asked to share their ideas with Christchurch City Council staff on the design features for a new skate park which will be sited next to the playground at Halswell Domain.

Council Parks Project Manager Steve Gray said the group had provided valuable input to the design process, adding to information gathered from a "Drop In" session held at Halswell Domain on Sunday afternoon, and another school visit to Seven Oaks School.

“Most of the kids here ride scooters and they scoot at the weekends out at the Prebbleton skate park. We think this park could become part of a real destination, with the model trains and the playgound at Halswell Domain. Families could choose this as a destination on the weekend, so we’ll be designing it with that in mind,” Mr Gray said.

“We’ve come to the school to ask the children to have a look through the ideas and give us a feel as to what they like in a skate park, because there is no point building one that isn’t going to be fit for the user.

“We don’t build skate parks to target age, we build to target ability. We need to think – what can we do to keep interest for different ability levels? How can we use colours, mounds, plantings and other natural features? Our challenge is to provide a skate park that looks good but is usable.”

Thirteen-year-old Kate Payne said local children were excited at the prospect of the new park and had plenty of ideas.

 “We want something that provides fun and enjoyment. We’d like bowls, table tops, ramps, stairs and quarter pipes. We all ride scooters so it’s going to be really exciting. All of us love going to Prebbleton to the park there, but we have to rely on our parents taking us all the time. So when this park comes we’ll be able to take ourselves over there."

The skate park will be designed by Raglan-based Landscape Architect Richard Smith, who has designed more than 70 skate parks throughout New Zealand. It is one of two planned for the Halswell area. The second skate park will be at Knights Stream Sports Park. Construction of both parks is expected to begin mid-2017.

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