Creating New Zealand’s best children’s playground in Invercargill is capturing people’s imagination with a huge amount of positive feedback and some truly inspiring suggestions, Invercargill mayoral candidate Marcus Lush says.

As part of his campaign to make Invercargill the “Welcome City”, Lush wants to make the city a fantastic place where no one will leave, by building:

• New Zealand’s biggest and best playground in Queens Park by year three. (Not funded by ratepayers )
• New Zealand’s best museum by year six (indoor, outdoor flow connecting to the playground)
• Invercargill Tram back by year nine. (Not funded by ratepayers)

After this week’s Southland Chamber of Commerce debate, Lush said he was left thinking about why children don’t get much of a mention during local government election conversations.

“Children have not been mentioned in any meaningful way. From my perspective, the wellbeing of our children is the most important issue of all.”

Invercargill has a lot of great suburban playgrounds — including the fantastic Russell Square – but a themed, adventure playground in Queens Parks connecting to the new museum would take the city to another level, Lush said.

“A surprisingly large number of people have told me they travel to Christchurch to visit the Margaret Mahy Playground, as our family does about twice a year. Let’s give people another fantastic reason to come to Invercargill for a holiday — and get people coming the other way.”

The playground would also appeal to parents, caregivers and lots of grandparents who live here or visit as a place to take kids, Lush said.

Many people have suggested naming it ‘Dreamweaver Park’ in honour of former children’s librarian and legendary storyteller Liz Miller, he said.

He suggested a public naming contest could be appropriate when the time comes.

A themed playground could also tie in with his idea of a giant hedge maze as another city attraction — although that could be located elsewhere in the city, he said.

As part of his commitment to the mayoral role, and as part of the “Welcome City” campaign, Lush said he was offering to take city visitors and residents on Friday walking tours of the city, and Bluff.

He would get rid of the mayoral car, convert the Council’s car fleet to EVs, and investigate solar panels for Council housing to help keep pensioner’s power bills down.

These ideas all fed into the plan for Invercargill to be the best and most liveable small city in New Zealand by doing everything it can to attract, and retain doctors, chefs, dentists, rest-home workers and a range of other workers, he said.

Lush said he would champion the great work being by the Southland Housing Action Forum to encourage new development and highlight the need for more social housing.

“We need to encourage conversations around what housing solutions for the future might look like, such as developing more inner city apartments,” he said.

• Marcus Lush is inviting Bluffies to pop by his house on Sunday between 1pm-3pm if they have any questions or suggestions for him. If you don’t have the address email him on: marcuslushbluff@gmail.com

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