Since 1964, when the Feilding Jaycees donated the aviaries at Kōwhai Park, Manawatū residents have enjoyed seeing the birds on display there.

Native birds were displayed there until 2018, when they were rehomed because the aviaries did not meet the minimum Department of Conservation standards to house native birds. We now face a similar issue for exotic birds, with the aviaries requiring substantial upgrades and increased levels of service to comply with welfare standards under the Animal Welfare Act 1999.

The current aviaries have a number of structural issues, and contain asbestos particle boards which would make any renovation expensive. In addition, we would need to cut down mature trees to increase sunlight to the aviaries. Therefore, if it is decided we should retain the aviaries, then we would have to build new aviaries.

Whatever decision is made, we do need to demolish the current aviaries, and we will replace them with new display gardens. The status quo is not an option.

If we built new aviaries, the daily care and support required would need to be more than is provided now, which increases the cost of maintaining the birds to an appropriate standard.

The options we're proposing

  • Close the existing aviaries

    Council's preferred option

    Demolish the existing aviaries and develop the space on which they sit into display gardens. This would cost approximately $40,000. It would also result in operational savings of $10,000 in year 1, and ongoing savings of $50,000 per annum from year 2 onwards.

  • Build new aviaries that meet the welfare standards

    Demolish the existing aviaries and build new ones that meet the welfare standards. The new build would cost around $800,000 and we would also have around $150,000 per year in operating costs, and a further $132,000 per year in interest and depreciation costs. This option would cost a Feilding ratepayer* about $0.38 per week and town centre businesses an extra $1.27 per week more than option 1.

*To provide an 'apples for apples' comparison in the options within this section, we use the median property Capital Value across all ratepayer categories (excluding Defence properties) - this value is $660,000. Please see our Consultation Document for a full explanation of how we have worked out these indicative rates based on median capital property value.

Which option do you prefer?

Let us know by completing our submission form