Whangārei's newest playground at Potter Park to be built in coming months

A 3D graphic of the playground that will be built at Potter Park in Tikipunga. Photo/Supplied

The design for a children's playground which will be built in Tikipunga has been chosen and the whole park should be ready for children in the area to play on in early May.

Construction of Potter Park, on the corner of Corks Rd and Vinegar Hill Rd, will start around late March or early April and is expected to take about a month.

The Tikipunga Children's Home Trust donated a 4000sq m corner of its 10ha site to Whangārei District Council in 2017.

The trust also donated $130,000 for the installation of a playground, which it asked to be aimed at children aged five to 12 years.

Whangārei District Council has contributed another $100,000 to the project.

The park gets its name from the Potter Children's Home which operated on the land for many decades.

Council landscape architect Tracey Moore said staff visited Totara Grove School, Tikipunga Primary School and Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Rawhiti Roa to share plans and images of playground proposals.

She said the most popular design overall, as selected by the students, will be supplied and installed by Playco Playgrounds.

"The new playground will feature play equipment with shade sails, a toddler bike track, seating, drinking fountain and additional trees."

Moore said some mature trees on the corner of Corks and Vinegar Hill roads will remain.

"The site will be cleared and bollards installed around the boundary. New concrete footpaths on Corks and Vinegar Hill roads will connect to the park entrance."

She said the tender for the work on the park closed on Friday.

The trust was established in 1925 by the Potter family and the home was built in 1939, originally to care for orphans.

It closed in 2013 after staffing costs became unmanageable.

In 2015 representatives of the home approached the council with a proposal to provide land for a children's park on the corner of its 10ha site.

In 2017 the council finalised the deal to move the land on the corner of Corks and Vinegar Hill roads into its hands.