Motorbikes can spoil sports, Council says

Kāpiti Coast District Council parks and operations staff are pulling their hair out over the increasing problem of motorised vehicles damaging sports grounds.

Parks, Open Spaces and Environment manager Gareth Eloff said staff had noticed an increase in motorbikes, motor scooters, and even e-scooters, using sports fields as raceways, play spaces, for learning to ride, or for short cuts.

“With all the rain we’ve been having, the sportsgrounds are particularly soft, so it doesn’t take much to damage the surface and leave lasting imprints that hamper legitimate and safe use by the public.

“We’re trying to raise awareness of the problem and ask all motorised vehicle riders to keep off the grass,” Mr Eloff said. The biggest problems were at Weka, Matthews, Jim Cooke, and Campbell Parks, he said.

“We understand it’s tough – they can’t ride on many parts of the beaches either so there’s very few places these riders can go other than private land or the Akatarawa Forest, but that’s no excuse for abusing our sports fields.

“The ongoing damage is creating huge frustration for our staff who take enormous pride in keeping our sports grounds in great shape for sports games. Ratepayers are footing the bill for the repeated repairs, and we don’t want anyone to get hurt playing on a rough surface.

Damage to our carefully groomed Matthews Park, Raumati.

“If we can’t keep a lid on motorbikes on parks, significant damage caused could mean we need to consider closing the grounds to sports altogether for restoration and repairs. No one wants that – not the sports teams, or parents, or schools – and I don’t think the motorbike riders would want to see that happen either.”

Mr Eloff is appealing to parents, neighbours, schools, and the sporting community to talk to their young people about the damage motorised vehicles cause to our sports grounds and to help them find an alternative place to ride.