Taipari Park skate park removal
Published on 27 January 2023
The skate park facilities are being removed from Taipari Park starting from 20 March 2023 due to a long-standing commitment to return sacred burial ground it’s built on to local iwi.
Skaters are advised to use the popular Thames Powerco Skate Park in Porritt Park which was built specifically to replace Taipari Skate Park.
A group of young skaters worked with the Council to help design the new replacement skate park which opened in 2017.
Thames Powerco Skate Park caters for all age groups, and offers improved facilities. It includes eight different pieces of equipment:
- 1m-high kicker (semi-straight ramp)
- 1m-high quarter pipe (curved ramp forming a ¼ circle)
- 1.5m-high half pipe (curved ramp forming a ½ circle)
- 1.2m quarter bowl (inverted below the main surface)
- 4 x grind rails (rails for sliding along).
The new skate park includes a drinking fountain, nearby toilets and bins – facilities that Taipari Park wasn’t able to offer.
Our Council is committed to ensuring younger children, as well as teenagers and experienced skaters, feel safe in using Powerco Thames Skate Park and will be monitoring this. If you have a younger child who uses the old skatepark and would like to discuss their needs further, please contact our Customer Services Team on 07 868 0200 or email them at customer.services@tcdc.govt.nz so that we can consider how the new skate park can best meet their needs.
Taipari Park is built on a sacred urupā or burial ground where the remains of Ngāti Maru ancestors are buried. Council has acknowledged the sensitivity of this area and signalled in its 2019 Reserves Management Plan its intention to return this land to Ngāti Maru. The return of Taipari Park is a first step in returning the sacred site to Ngāti Maru. Work is also underway to identify a replacement site for Centennial Pool.