Former Mt Wellington Women’s Bowling Club building and a historic chapter of Panmure has comes to its end on 7 June 2024.
Most recently home to Maungarei Army Cadets, the former bowling club established in 1964 at 21a Te Koa Road, Panmure has not been safe to enter since 2017, and Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board has agreed to have it dismantled.
Once fully deconstructed and removed, the area will be reinstated to grass, returning it to a more maintainable open green space as part of Mauinaina West Reserve.
Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board chair, Maria Meredith is pleased about having open space returned to the community.
“This demolition is a win-win for everyone as we endeavour to respond to the area’s population growth, it is equally important to provide more accessible open space to our community,” says chair Meredith.
“And while budgets are tight, the removal of this under-utilised building means one less asset in our portfolio to maintain and therefore reduces ongoing costs – which is an objective in our three-year plan.
“In the meantime, such funding could be allocated towards prioritised building or infrastructure upgrades and repairs,” she says.
“After being unoccupied for seven years, the bowling club building was deteriorating, and its condition has worsened by vandalism – becoming an unattractive aspect of our local reserve.
“With the abandoned building gone and additional space returned to the reserve, hopefully we can regain more of a sense of pride for the area,” says chair Meredith.
In 2021, Auckland Council’s asset assessment report officially determined the building had reached its end of service life and was therefore recommended a priority for deconstruction.
Public consultation in 2018 on the local board area’s open space network plan sought feedback on needs for parks and reserves, including Mauinaina West Reserve.
Feedback gathered from the consultation proposed a new playground, employ a community co-design process to plan layout of reserve facilities and supported potential land exchanges to increase provision and improved accessibility to the reserve.
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