Playground Access Issue

It seems like the Southland District Council is not the only Territorial Authority discriminating against people with disabilities. This letter from Andrew Hall, CEO of Burwood Spinal Trust has been sent to the Mackenzie District Council. The response from the MDC Community Facilities Manager was that the original surface for the playground was to be NuMat but it was changed at the last minute (AFTER public consultations closed) in order to save money!

Over the Christmas and New Year break my family and I were staying in our holiday home in Twizel and we were most interested to see the completed town centre developments. The landscaping and development has clearly made the area much more attractive and the bird sculptures are excellent too.

I was disappointed however to see the completely inaccessible new playground area and ‘only accessible with difficulty’ surrounding white gravel pathways. I have two small children aged 10mths and 3½ years and the older boy is a frequent playground user. He was down at the old Twizel playground just about everyday when we were there and I’m sure that the younger boy will soon also be a big time playground user.

It is completely impossible for me, as a parent who uses a wheelchair, to assist my children in the new playground due to the loose gravel surface that has been applied. If the material is able to be solidified in some way, maybe with crusher dust, then access may be slightly improved (although still not ideal) however I assume it will then become unsuitable for safety reasons.

Last year the New Zealand Spinal Trust constructed a $130,000 garden and playground in front of the Burwood Spinal Unit and the surface that was laid in the playground was called Safe-T-Mats supplied by Numat Industries in Oamaru (ph: 0800 686 287). This surface cost about $66/sq metre (excl GST and excl installation and freight) so is clearly not cheap but it is the best surface by far for playgrounds.

Also it seems there are still some large gaps in the playground area so I am hopeful that some of the equipment still to be installed will include items suitable for Under 5s. Maybe some of the items could be from the old playground or perhaps they could be new items of a similar nature (particularly the slides and the fort structure)?

The NZ Spinal Trust is very interested in assisting the Mackenzie District Council to develop fully accessible facilities anywhere so please feel free to contact us at any time if you think we can help.