Parks being visually checked for serious hazards

Ahead of summer, our Parks team and contractors have been visually inspecting many of our reserves for potential hazards that could cause serious harm.

Hazards include areas that drop off elevated paths onto beaches or trees on which locals have tied rope swings. It is not possible to eliminate all hazards, so we ask people to use common sense and take personal responsibility wherever possible.

For example, in the case of rope swings tied to trees, in other parts of the country, people have been injured when swinging because a weakened rope breaks, causing injury for the swinger. However, many locals feel Council is a spoilsport when taking away rope swings, and, as soon as Council takes the swings down, locals tie up a new one.

A recent area of concern has been holes in the ground caused by buried tree stumps which rot over time. Sites in Matarangi and Pauanui are regularly inspected for this because early development of original farmland saw stumps buried before current town plans were developed. Areas which may now be grassed parks can develop cavities not obvious above ground until an event such as a storm causes them to open.

It's challenging for our team, because there is often no evidence until the surface falls in, which may not be seen until someone trips or falls.

Even our current inspection has limitations because we may have found an area clear of hazards only for one to appear a few days later, when the team are in another part of the vast Coromandel parks territory.

Thames is especially vulnerable to old mine shafts collapsing, such as happened in the middle of State Highway 25 late one April night in 2012 just north of Thames. The past 'she'll be right' mentality of the hardy early townsfolk eventually came home to roost when the roof of an old pump shaft collapsed.

Locals were not overly endowed with long term planning ability when they put wooden boards over the shaft and built a road on top of the boards before it became a state highway in the 1960s.

Over time, the timber decayed.

The shaft was part of the first big pump which was used to drain the mines on the Thames goldfield constructed in 1872, and is believed to be close to 200m deep.

While our contractors have a regular maintenance and inspection regime, we can't be everywhere at all times, so if you see any holes or other hazards, don't assume we know about them.

Call us urgently on 07 868 0200.

Your call will be logged in our system and registered as a "Request For Service" (RFS) so that the job can be tracked, much like you do when using 'track and trace' when sending something valuable by courier.

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