The wait may be over for a group of Alexandra men wanting to establish a men's shed.
The Vincent Community Board will today discuss a proposal to allow the men to relocate a building they already have to a site at the Fulton Hogan bike park, at Molyneux Park.
The building, beside St Enoch's Church, was set to go to a site on Boundary Rd but neighbours objected, their main concern being that the site would be reclassified from a local purpose reserve or green belt. The land was supposed to have been landscaped as a buffer between the industrial and residential areas.
That site was "considered the only option available to the board for offering to the blokes' shed", council property officer Brian Taylor said in a report.
The board then met those opposed twice in an effort to try to negotiate an outcome that would suit both parties.
"At the final meeting the submitters remained steadfastly opposed and were clearly in no mood to negotiate a compromise arrangement," Mr Taylor said in a report for today's board meeting. He also said the reason the shed had to be shifted was because the St Enoch's site was needed for building the new Alexandra Community House.
In their original submissions, most of those opposed said it was not the idea of a men's shed they were against, just its proposed location on buffer-zone land.
If the board accepts Mr Taylor's recommendations, the parking area at the bike park would be offered to the group in the interim, until a more suitable site could be found, subject to all affected parties consenting.
In his report Mr Taylor said the current administrators of the park supported the proposal, believing "the presence of the men's shed at that location would very likely reduce the frequency of vandalism at the bike park".
The idea behind the shed was to have somewhere that older men, mostly retired, could go to work on personal and community projects, but also to build relationships and to share knowledge and skills.
