Franklin’s dogs are getting a fitness course where they can train alongside their masters. The Franklin Local Board has approved the proposed development of the Auranga Esplanade Reserve fitness station and dog agility course at Bremner Road in Drury.
The board had raised two concerns, the availability of bins to dispose of dog waste, and the surface between the agility equipment. Designs were subsequently updated to include more bins and a water-fountain, and the surface of the dog agility course will remain grassed.
The reserve, part of the residential development at Bremner Road, will have a fitness course over about 150 square metres that includes parallel bars, sit-up, chin-up and push-up bars set on a soft-fall bark base.
A dog agility course with a balance beam, jump through, hurdles, agility bridge, tunnel, sit/stay platform and weave poles made from recycled plastic will be built alongside it.
Franklin Local Board chair Andy Baker welcomed the facility. “This is a great opportunity given the limited facilities of their type in the area. There are a lot of dogs in Franklin, so having somewhere they can train, play and learn obedience and agility will be great.”
The development forms part of the wider Auranga open space network, which includes four 3,000 square metre reserves, one 6,00 square metre reserve and five kilometres of esplanade reserve along the north coastline and through the centre of the development. The Auranga development started in 2016 and involves about 1,000 new homes across an 85 hectare area directly west of the motorway and Drury. Another 83 hectares of land south and west of the existing site was rezoned for development in a 2018 plan change.
