Neighbourhood parks are the heartbeat of Ballarat's community and are visited on a daily basis by many.
They are the smallest open spaces for Ballarat's residents, designed for short regular use by residents living within 500 metres, and there are some 200 reserves in this category across Ballarat.
This annual rolling program aims to improve the neighbourhood parks that Ballarat's residents frequent. Each year the City of Ballarat team design and implement changes for up to 10 reserves where the improvements are needed the most.
The latest instalment of neighbourhood parks set for improvements are:
- Kowree Court Park, Sebastopol
- Drummond Street Reserve, Lake Wendouree
- Yarana Drive Park, Mount Helen
- Victoria Street Reserve, Sebastopol
- Gregory Street Reserve, Soldiers Hill
- Clover Street Reserve, Wendouree
- Marigold Street Reserve, Wendouree
- Rizal Park, Invermay
Several factors are considered when choosing what park to upgrade, including:
- The age and condition of play equipment
- Park conditions
- Demographics of the suburbs, where the need is the highest
Over the past two years of the Neighbourhood Parks program, there have been 18 reserves in the pipeline for engagement, design and construction.
Parks recently completed or near complete include:
- The Horsham Crescent Park in Alfredton
- The Hearn Road Park in Brown Hill
- College Street Park, Wendouree
- Cuthberts Road Reserve, Alfredton
- Vale Street Park, Alfredton
Improvements across some of these open spaces included park shelters and seating, circuit paths throughout the reserve, new playspaces and tree plantings.
Concept plans are available for another seven parks, which can be viewed on the MySay, while the remainder of parks are in draft design, ready for a second phase of consultation.
The community can now review the progress of all the parks via a new MySay page for the Neighbourhood Parks program. It offers a map and listings to see what stage each park is currently at, and to see the designs and construction updates.
