Palmerston North residents want 'easy' leisure

Palmerston North residents are avoiding making use of the City Council's $155 million investment in parks, recreation and community facilities.

A recent report by Fairfax NZ News suggested that while Palmerston North Council City's parks and recreation facilities, including Arena Manawatu, amounted for the greatest expenditure among its services, costing each ratepayer $5.83 a week to maintain, the local community are only average participants in active recreation.

In preparing the new draft recreation strategy for the major city of the North Islands Manawatu-Wanganui region, Council Policy Analyst Tracey Hunt has been researching activity trends in areas such as sport, physical play, walking, cycling and being active in park environments.

Hunt found that despite offering better than average facilities for formal and informal recreation, less than half of Manawatu's residents measure up to New Zealand national health guidelines recommending 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week.

Hunt has found people aged over 65 and those with less money to spend were more likely to be sedentary, and there was growing concern that uniform costs and fees were excluding children from poorer homes joining sports teams.

Manawatu residents overall were less likely than average New Zealanders to participate in organised competitive sports 26% against the national 37% while favourite activities including were walking, gardening, swimming, or going to the gym.

Hunt told Fairfax NZ News "people are wanting things they can drop into and out of.

"They want it to be easy, something they can pick up whenever they have time."

Hunt said the Council wanted to work with other agencies to encourage greater use of the city's facilities to improve people's health, safety and wellbeing.

Initiatives under consideration include a directory of activities people can do for free and for greater use of Arena Manawatu.

The $46 million Arena Manawatu property covers 17 hectares, and is close to the centre of Palmerston North CBD, but is generally used as a major events venue.

City Councillor Vaughan Dennison added "it should be a hub for indoor sports not just a venue where people go to spectate, but to participate."

Hunt is inviting comment on how the Council and other groups can do to make it easier and more attractive for residents to get out and be part of Council activities.

The draft recreation strategy can be viewed at http://www.palmerstonnorth.com/yourcouncil/councilactivities/shared-articles/recreation-strategy/

Image courtesy of Sport Manawatu.