8 July 2025: dirt bikes, dog control hearing

Media: Local Democracy Reporting

Topic: Dirt bike riding on reserves

Enquiry

I am looking at following up on a reader tip regarding dirt bikes and skid cars destroying the grass at a local rec reserve along Susan St, Spinel Pl and Sapphire Pl.

I am sure you are blue in the face at commenting on dirt bike stories so doing my best to move it along slightly I have a few questions which it would be great if you could get back to me on.

A response by EOD tomorrow would be amazing but let me know if that is unrealistic for any of the queries posed.

Questions below and thank you for your time.

• Did Council receive a complaint about this specific act of vehicular vandalism?
• If so do you have a specific day/time I could confirm?
• Do Council keep a record of complaints related to vehicular vandalism of parks and reserves? If so, do you know how many there have been in the past 6 months and the 12 prior?
• Any estimation around cost of repairs to fields in either the year to date or 2025 (or most recent data)?
• Do you have a list of reserves and parks where this behaviour has been reported?
• I assume police are informed?
• What methods are you looking at in regards to preventing access?
• Understandably it is difficult to prevent two-wheelers gaining access without a detrimental impact on other users, other than access prevention what other solutions are being sought?
• Some of these reserves have playgrounds in them. Is there a concern for the safety of children using these parks?
• What advice have police given or would Council give to anyone who encounters this sort of behaviour?

That’s all I can think of right now but will update you if anything else comes to mind.

Thank you again, I look forward to your response.

Response

From Council Spokesperson:

We are aware of this incident, along with previous similar occurrences. Our team is currently investigating and reviewing access points. Such incidents are reported to the police. Given that our investigation is ongoing, it would be premature for us to provide further comments on this incident. But we can confirm the incident was reported to us on July 2, at 12.59pm.

This behaviour is irresponsible and poses a danger. We have already contacted the police regarding such incidents, and we urge the public to promptly notify police. We have received 12 complaints from the public in the last six months and 13 complaints last year.

Our staff work tirelessly to keep our parks and reserves beautiful for everyone to use and this type of damage can take up to a month to repair and has cost ratepayers about $4,000 this year.

We use a number of methods to try and dissuade this type of behaviour such as barriers to prevent motorcycle access, in some instances concrete road barriers are used, we also have standard reserve practices of bollard and post/rail fencing.

Fields/reserves affected:

Ray Boord Park, Westbrook, Village Green, Sulphur Flats, Linton Park, Susan St, Huia Lions Reserve, Karenga Park, Hannahs Bay, Pohutukawa Drive, Hamurana, Steeles Lane, Gemini Place, Saphire Place and Okawa Bay Reserves and Coulter Rd.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Media: Rotorua Daily Post

Topic: Dog panel control hearing

Enquiry

I attended the dog control panel meeting [Monday] morning before it moved into public excluded - could I please be notified of the outcome of Dolly once a decision has been made?

Response

We informed the reporter that the report and minutes will be made publicly available following notification to the objector.