Mayor Grant Smith opens Kelvin Grove Community Centre carpark

Mayor Grant Smith opens the carpark at Kelvin Grove Community Centre on Saturday. Looking on is Kelvin Grove Community Association chairman Grant Hook. Photo / Michael Ho

Moving the Palmerston North Centennial Pavilion to Kaimanawa Park was meant to be temporary. No provision was made for off-road car parking.

Kelvin Grove Park was to be the permanent home of the suburb’s community centre but, to do a disservice to Burns, the best-laid plans of committees and cats came into play.

When the pavilion was moved from The Square in 1980, Kelvin Grove Park was still a paddock and no school had been built. But when the park, which was to have 25 car parks, was being designed in 1986 the then Kelvin Grove Progressive Association decided to leave the community centre in Kaimanawa St.

The trouble was, as longtime Kelvin Grove resident and historian Val Burr points out, there was no Mihaere Dr overbridge and Kaimanawa St was yet to become a busy thoroughfare for trucks.

On Saturday, Mayor Grant Smith opened the 20-space carpark next to the centre, which residents have been lobbying for for years.

Kelvin Grove Community Association chairman Grant Hook said it had taken many years of submissions to the council to get the carpark approved.

The community association manages the centre on behalf of the city council and promotes its use to the community.

The centre is now safer for the community to use, Hook said. As well as the high volume of traffic on Kaimanawa St, the curving street reduces sight lines.

Some of the attendees at the opening of the Kelvin Grove Community Centre carpark. Photo / Judith Lacy

The carpark cost $290,000 with the community association contributing $40,000 raised from centre hireage and the rest came from the council.

The lack of carparking had been a barrier to people wanting to use the centre, Hook said. It has two ramps but there had been nowhere for people with accessibility challenges to park.

The carpark has also increased the visibility of the centre and provided easier access to the park, Hook said.

The centre’s toilets have been upgraded and heat pumps installed.

The community association wants to add a pantry, a roof over the kitchen porch, refurbish the front room, and replace the sliding doors and hot water cylinder.

The association has monthly meetings and is looking for a secretary, someone to prepare submissions, and someone to show prospective users through the centre.

It is also looking for volunteers to run events such as coffee mornings and make Snap Send Solve reports to let the council know what needs fixing in Kelvin Grove.

“It would be great to get the community talking to each other,” Hook said. “It would break down a lot of barriers.”

Kelvin Grove Community Association secretary Val Burr talks to community development adviser Marty Brady about the history of the suburb. Looking on is Bruce Burr, who has lived in Kelvin Grove all his life. Photo / Judith Lacy

Burr, who is the association’s secretary, says people forget Kelvin Grove is not an ordinary suburb. It used to be a village like Bunnythorpe and Longburn outside the city as Roslyn didn’t exist until well after Kelvin Grove was established.

The Guardian of April 17, 1979, quotes director of reserves John Bolton saying Kelvin Grove’s needs are greater than any other portion of the city. “The isolation of the area dictates the need for community facilities.”

A Tribune editorial of February 10, 1980, worried about what would happen to the “pavilion pusses” that lived under the pavilion in The Square. The same issue ran a cartoon by Inky with a representative from Bright Ideas suggesting to then-mayor Brian Elwood the council should build cat flats that would double as waste food disposal units. The paper also interviewed Myra Te Rangi, who had fed the cats that lived under the pavilion since 1973.

To volunteer for the community association email kgca.adm@gmail.com.

To book the centre visit pncc.govt.nz.