Future of Morrinsville Recreation Grounds up for public feedback

The Morrinsville Recreation Grounds is the town's largest public green space. Image / Supplied

Matamata-Piako District Council is looking at a future vision for the Morrinsville Recreation Grounds.

The 22ha park is Morrinsville's largest public green space and currently accommodates cricket, football, tennis, swimming and polo.

It is also home to Swim Zone Morrinsville and has an off-leash dog exercise area, playgrounds, a mini skate bowl, motorhome parking and dumping facilities, a carpark, public toilets and the Morrinsville River Walk.

Chairman of the Reimagine Morrinsville Rec working party, councillor James Thomas, says: "Morrinsville residents [are] passionate about 'The Rec'. Over the last few years we've been approached by a number of groups or individuals wanting to do various activities at the grounds and one of the challenges has been a lack of an overall, long term community vision for the space."

Over the next few months, the council will consult the community to find out what's working well, what's not working and what could be better at the Morrinsville Recreation Grounds.

Thomas says: "This is an opportunity for us all to reimagine the grounds and think about how we'd like to use the area in the future ... We encourage anyone interested in the future vision of the grounds to please take up the opportunities, either online or in person, to tell us your vision for this community space."

Some groundwork has already been done with early engagement with Ngāti Hauā, a site analysis and a working party set up made up of Morrinsville ward councillors, key staff, local community and iwi representatives.

Key users of the Morrinsville Recreation Grounds will soon be asked to complete an online survey before being invited to attend a workshop about the long term vision for the popular green space.

The rest of the community will be invited to take part in the discussion, initially online then in person as Covid-19 levels allow.