On review of community feedback and the proposed design, we saw an opportunity to rethink how we could enhance the community’s connection to Cannon’s Creek Park. To help create new spaces in the park that celebrate the community's culture, heritage, and identity we continued engagement for an additional six months in 2023. This included engaging with a group of community members who have a connection to Cannons Creek Park, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, and local school students came together, supported by landscape architects and Porirua City Council.

Over this time the group worked together to explore the local cultural narrative and how we could include our local history into Cannons Creek Park and wetland. As a result, our resource consent application included the construction of a wetland, accessible paths and new recreational spaces that will help support local kaitiakitanga (guardianship), enhance the community’s connection to Cannons Creek Park and te taiao (environment).

There will be three   sports fields with improved drainage helping to ensure they can be played on more often; a wetland on the bottom field (northern end); larger and more resilient wastewater and stormwater pipes to support current and future generations living in the East; new recreational spaces around the park and accessible paths to help everyone access not only the sport fields, but also the new recreational spaces, Bothamley Park, Warspite Avenue and Castor Crescent.   

As part of the park upgrades through Cannons Creek Park, we will be creating new spaces for the community to use and enjoy. They include:

• Welcome – when you come into the park from the Warspite Avenue entrance this area is welcoming and a place that whether you’re a local or visiting, you know you’re in Cannon’s Creek Park. Signs will provide information about other areas you could visit in the park or nearby. We’re also investigating options to include local sculpture or art that enhances visitors’ connection to eastern Porirua community.
• Whānau area (connect) – whether a small or a larger group, this space is designed for gathering, sharing kai or relaxing together. It will include facilities to prepare and eat kai, accessible tables for sharing kai and a space for picnics, put up a gazebo or sit under shade. 
• Whānau area (active) – a place where whānau can come to be active and play. From climbing, sliding, jumping or swinging, this area will work with the existing slope to provide lots of active fun. It will also include shaded space for park users to rest and watch their friends and whānau play.
• Celebration and identity – this space will celebrate our local history, stories and cultural identity of our people and communities within eastern Porirua. It will include signs, storyboards, local sculptures and art, along with seating on the grassed area (including accessible seating), and shaded areas.
• Education – an outdoor classroom designed to encourage learning in natural environment. This space includes seating, places to put down mats, shaded areas and spaces to teach Tamariki or visitors to the area and information boards to learn from.
• Connection to taiao (the environment) – this space is designed to enhance the community and visitors’ connection to te taiao . With a range of signs that tell the park’s history, information about insects and wildlife they may see in the area, as well as play areas, Rongoa planting and kai forests. There will be future opportunities as we look to replant in the area, for the community to get involved and create connection to the local area. 

The new recreational spaces will be located around the sports fields and wetland. They will be linked by accessible shared paths, ensuring no space is taken away from the sport fields.  

If resource consent is granted, there will be some temporary disruption during construction, however we will minimise this as much as we can to ensure everyone can still access the main sports areas of the park. 

A wetland is an area of land that is covered by water. They act like the kidneys of the earth, cleaning the water that flows into them. A wetland is designed to trap soil, filter out nutrients and remove contaminants. 

As well as supporting water management, wetlands can also benefit the community in other ways. Wetlands can be designed to include recreational and community benefits, such as new paths for walking or biking, as well as supporting local wildlife.

Our waterways are feeling the pressure of a growing population and changes to land-use. During community engagement in 2019, the management of storm and waste water featured often, with many people expressing concern about the quality of the waterways and the pollution of the Te Awarua-o-Porirua. These concerns were backed up from a 2019 review of the quality of freshwater in Porirua (which included Kenepuru Stream) that found it to be Grade E, which is the lowest water quality grade. 

Run off from rain can cause problems for our taiao, our environment. A lot of rain falls on hard surfaces like roofs, driveways and roads and when it runs down into the drain it can carry with it dust and dirt as well as pollutants like heavy metals from old roofs and oil from our cars.

Soil and toxins end up in our streams and harbour polluting our waterways, harming our marine life such as fish and affecting the quality of water we use for recreation like swimming or fishing.  

We want to improve water quality for the community by improving the stormwater entering our waterways. One of the best ways to do this is through investing in water management solutions such as wetlands and pipe upgrades.  

The bottom (northern end) of Cannons Creek Park is a great option to create a wetland because it is at the bottom of the catchment, so the run-off from all of the area upstream can flow through the wetland and be treated before it gets into Kenepuru Stream and Te Awarua-o-Porirua harbour.

As part of the development to the east of Cannons Creek Park, we have laid very large pipes underground to help divert runoff and water from wider urban area into the wetland. This means water from the area can be cleaned and treated in the wetland before it flows downstream, ensuring we are improving water quality in Porirua.   

The Government announced in July 2021 that they would be allocating $136 Million of the Housing Acceleration Fund to fund key water infrastructure upgrades to support eastern Porirua. This includes funding to create a wetland to help improve water management. 

There will be an agreed joint approach between Porirua City and Wellington Water to monitor and maintain the wetland once completed.

There are a couple of great examples of wetlands around Porirua City. The most commonly known is Taupō Swamp near Plimmerton. This natural, protected wetland is home to 19 native bird species and a wide variety of plants which support the local ecosystem and environment. 

More recently Wellington Water, Porirua City Council and Ngāti Toa Rangatira converted 7000 square metres of field to create Te Kukuwai o Toa native wetland in Elsdon. This wetland is helping to improve the health of the harbour, create a new home for birds and insects, whilst creating a new space for locals to connect with nature.

Porirua City Council are looking at other opportunities to develop wetlands in partnership with other agencies. In a joint project with Greater Wellington Regional Council, the Council developed an artificial wetland at the foreshore opposite the Porirua Stream mouth. As well as tidying-up a neglected area of the harbour, this project is providing an additional home for birdlife.