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Situated off State Highway 5, four kilometres north of Napier, Eskdale Park is spread over 12 hectares next to the Esk River, with 7 hectares available for public use. Part of the land forming Eskdale Park was generously gifted to the community by Thomas Clark in the 1920’s.
Severe damage was inflicted on Eskdale Park by Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023.
Eskdale Park following Cyclone Gabrielle - May 2023
Unfortunately, the Cyclone resulted in the loss of nearly all park facilities, including playground equipment, picnic furniture, fencing, and toilets. One toilet block building has been retained but is not currently operational.
100,000 cubic metres of silt has been removed from the park, the park has been recontoured and grassed and tree maintenance and fencing have been completed. Eskdale Park has reopened in a limited capacity, providing space for recreation, shaded areas, and a small play area featuring a couple of swings. The park remains closed to vehicles due to the fragile stage that the grass regrowth is at, but it can be used by pedestrians.
Further reinstatement works to the park will occur once engagement has occurred with the local community and park users.
It is important to note that while opening the park will provide access to popular river swimming spots, there are concerns about safety. The cyclone is likely to have deposited debris (logs etc) in the stream which will be dangerous to swimmers. Hawke’s Bay Regional Council advises that the Esk River is currently not recommended for swimming, though ongoing assessments are being conducted.
Looking ahead, Council will engage with the community to determine plans for replacing park facilities. Prior to the cyclone, a draft Reserve Management Plan had been prepared for Eskdale Park, but given the significant impact on both the park and its community, the intention is to revisit the draft. Discussions will occur in 2025.
Eskdale Park also features a designated off-lead area for dogs along the southern side (right-hand side) of the park, extending to the end of the driveway
Seating: No
Public toilets: No (damaged as a result of Cyclone Gabrielle)
The entrance to the park is from Shaw Road, off St Highway 5 (Napier-Taupo Rd).
Maintenance and development programmes for this reserve are governed by the District Wide Reserve Management Plan.
Prior to the cyclone, Council prepared a draft Reserve Management Plan for Eskdale Park based on community input. The plan had been published for formal submissions and was ready to be presented to Council for its consideration.
That last stage of the process was waiting on the outcome of complaints to the Ombudsman on Council’s community engagement process related to a request by the Hawke’s Bay Mountain Bike Club for access to its mountain bike tracks on private land from Eskdale Park, and on two matters related to reserves in Havelock North.
That finding was received in September and Council has prepared a statement and timeline of its engagement with the Hawke's Bay Mountain Bike Club, as requested and approved by the Ombudsman, acknowledging the decision. You can read the statement below (which includes a link to the full Ombudsman document).
That should have triggered the consultation on the Eskdale Park RMP, however the cyclone has vastly changed the landscape of the park and the facilities on it. Council has also received advice from the mountain bike club that it no longer has any interest in accessing its trails from the park.
Those things materially change the basis on which the draft RMP was developed.
The parks team will now review the draft RMP and re-start public discussion on it during 2025. That will include talking with the community about the replacement of facilities on the park.
If you have questions related to these matters, please email parks@hdc.govt.nz.
The Ombudsman has released his finding into three complaints against Hasting District Council, lodged by a resident in 2022.
You can read the full findings here.
On two of the complaints relating to Council’s decision-making on tracks in Tainui Reserve and its management of tracks and trails during Covid-19 lockdowns, the Ombudsmen found in favour of Council.
On a third complaint regarding Eskdale Park and Council’s considerations in 2020 of the Hawke’s Bay Mountain Bike Club’s desire to make use of Eskdale Park and have a link from the park to its track network on private land, the Ombudsman found in favour of the complainant. He noted that while Council’s actions gave the appearance that a specific group (the HBMBC) received special treatment from Council, he found: “There is nothing obviously untoward in the Council’s actions, and I have found no evidence the Council has deliberately concealed information from the public about MBMBC’s desire to develop a mountain biking hub in Eskdale Park.”
The Ombudsman found that Council should have held a workshop on the matter in public and kept minutes of the meeting, and either stopped HBMBC from using Council’s logo and the word ‘partnership’ [with Council] in relation to the project in its communications or, post-publication, corrected HBMBC’s statements.
He said Council members’ supportive comments regarding the club’s vision and the handling of the engagement process, when considered alongside the closed workshop and HBMBC’s communications, led to a perception of bias; a result that could and should have been mitigated by Council.
Council apologises for its handling of this matter and, as requested by the Ombudsman, appends an overview of its engagement with the HBMBC below.
Council also notes that it has, since an Ombudsman’s report into Council workshops in 2023, adopted an ‘open by default’ policy for workshops,
This page on Council’s website outlines its workshop policy.
Hastings District Council is committed to conducting business in a manner that is open, transparent, and facilitates accountability and public participation.
Workshops are part of an educative phase of Council’s decision-making process and provide an opportunity for discussion between elected members and Council staff. Workshops cannot be used to make final decisions - these can only be made at Council meetings.
Council workshops are expected to be open to the public, unless there are good reasons to exclude the public. These reasons include that the topics for discussion:
HDC did not consider that public engagement was required, as this Licence to Occupy was solely about the construction of a trail network by HBMBC on privately owned Pan Pac land.
HDC did not consider that public engagement was required, as the funding applications were about the creation of tracks on private land and were commercially sensitive; and the access from Eskdale Park was only an ‘idea’ at this time.
HDC was the consenting authority, and in accordance with Section 95A(9)(b) of the Resource Management Act 1991, the application was processed on a non-notified basis, therefore no public engagement was required.
HDC considered that this workshop needed to be closed to the public, given the potential commercial sensitivity of HBMBC’s funding applications to the Provincial Growth Fund. The Ombudsman has concluded that this workshop ought to have been held in a way that was open to the public, and the HDC accepts that finding.
HDC considers that the community was engaged regarding the HBMBC proposal to use part of Eskdale Park as an alternative access point into its consented new track network in Pan Pac land within a timely manner (within 43 working days) from when the HBMBC confirmed to Council it would like to pursue the idea, following completion of their due diligence that it was potentially feasible.
Council fully accepts the Ombudsman’s finding that the June 2020 workshop should have been open to the public, and HDC should have immediately requested that its logo be removed from the Project Plan.
Eskdale Park
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