There are no specific plans at the moment for water fountains, bench seats, doggy bags etc but Council plans to look into additional features across all of our dog off-leash areas within the next couple of years.

Council does not currently have an allocated budget for this project, costs for improved fencing and mowing would need to come out of our bulk Community Facilities Fund. We have allocated $200,000 within our Long Term Plan budget but not until July 2023. This is the funding Council plans to use when we look into additional features across all of our dog off-leash areas within the next couple of years.

We asked the community for your thoughts on Swap Park as a dog off-leash area in March 2021. Based on the mixed feedback received from our community, Council felt there would be some issues with having an off-leash dog exercise area there. Overall a dog park in Matamata was supported so we investigated alternatives and decided Peria Road Reserve would be a good option to ask the community about. We also met with the person who had originally proposed Swap Park as an off-leash area and they are supportive of the idea of Peria Road Reserve as an alternative.

We have received a number of requests for additional dog off-leash areas in both Matamata and Te Aroha over recent years, we have not received similar requests for Morrinsville at this stage. Council looked at current and potential areas in Morrinsville during this review and at this stage didn’t see the need for an additional area in Morrinsville, however this is likely to be reviewed once the Lockerbie development is further along.