Western Park after a muddy few months in winter 2023. Photo: Supplied/Greta Holland
Wet weather and severe flooding in Auckland have reignited discussion about a wetland in a popular suburban park.
The wetland had been consulted on and turned down, but now with a bit of water under the bridge, it could be back on the table.
Freeman's Bay resident Greta Holland has noticed a lot of mud and water pooling in the Western Park on her walks during Auckland's wet winter, along with some new bird life, and it got her thinking.
"Walking past, there's herons there, all the grass is dying, and a reed or two is popping up, and it just seems like there should be a wetland there. If herons are moving in, then why not make a place for them?"
She suggested it to the local community Facebook page, where she found many in favour, and also an interesting tidbit of local history.
The idea of a wetland in the park had come up before, as part of the park's 2015 development plan.
At the time, there was not much support from the community and the idea was not progressed.
Pippa Coom, who was the Waitematā local board deputy chair during the consultation period, said it was not seen as a good use of the budget.
"I guess you could say it was a lukewarm response, because there was a concern that it would be taking up the valuable flat land, and that it would be near the playground and potentially that could be a hazard for small children to have a pond-like feature near a playground."
Nowadays, months on from some of the worst flooding Auckland has ever seen, current Waitematā local board member Alex Bonham said while the board had not yet discussed the idea and formed an opinion, she was all ears.
"There is clearly some interest in exploring ways to manage water in Western Park better, that might help prevent flooding, be visually appealing to the public and support biodiversity.
"When we hear these comments from the public, it's a good opportunity to have a think and see if there's something we could be doing in that space, but we haven't been given any advice from staff yet."
There are some detractors though.
Local Paul Bartlett, who had been going to Western Park for more than a decade, said he was worried it could mean the loss of the off-leash dog walking area and present a hazard for children at the playground.
"I think there needs to be consultation, and there's lots of people with different opinions. I mean, there's probably around 20 or 30 people who regularly go down there with their dogs."
Holland has written to the local board to officially suggest a wetland at Western Park, and Bonham is not saying no just yet.
"We'll see what happens, and people's views change about it, but if we were to move forward on putting in a wetland or something like that it would have to go through a whole process," Bonham said.
"We'd have to get expert advice, we'd want to know all the process and cons, whether it delivers bang for buck, what the community felt about it now and look at it from a whole place perspective."
In the meantime, Western Park will stay as is - although perhaps with an extra heron or two.
