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Following the nation being moved to COVID-19 Alert Level 3, Tauranga City Council is working to restore the city’s parks and reserves.

At Alert Level 3, council continue to focus on essential services, however it is also resuming parks maintenance services including mowing and gardening while meeting Government’s COVID-19 health and safety criteria.

Tauranga City Council Spaces and Places Manager, Mark Smith, said the city’s parks and reserves include almost 1600 hectares of parks, reserves, sports fields and berms, as well as around 98km of public walkways.

“You’ll begin to see our people mow, garden or maintain our parks, reserves and pitches again. Following more than four weeks of not being able to maintain these spaces, there’s a lot of area to cover.

“We’ll be getting to your area as soon as we can, and in a few weeks things will be looking neat and tidy again.”

A breakdown for general green maintenance is provided below:

Mowing of 95ha of road berm

• Mowing of 152ha of reserve land
• Maintaining 98km of walkways
• Keeping and maintaining 116ha of sports fields (with 59ha of this being sports playing surfaces)
• Gardening 30ha of street and reserve gardens
• Weed control of 343ha of native and dune vegetation 

 
Recap of rules around parks and reserves under Alert Level 3
If people do see staff out and about, please respect physical distancing and keep two metres away from them and their equipment.
 
TECT Park
The park is partially open for mountain biking, horse riding and walking. There is a strict one-way policy on the accessible trails with signage making this clear to users.
 
Playgrounds
All playgrounds are closed. Please stay away from playgrounds and avoid touching playground equipment as well as surface areas like park benches.
 
Picnic tables, public BBQs and drinking fountains
People should avoid using picnic tables. Public BBQs and drinking fountains will also remain turned off.
 
Parks and reserves
Some park gates will remain locked however, parks and reserves will be open to the public (except Mauao, Oropi Mountain Bike Park & McLaren Falls Park which are still closed).