MP ‘ill-informed' on seesaw

Otago Daily Times

28-07-2025

A National MP has been accused of getting his facts wrong after slamming council spending on a central Dunedin seesaw.
In a social media post published on Thursday, Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell criticised the Dunedin City Council for wasting ratepayer money on "stupid vanity projects".
He claimed the council had spent $600,000 on a seesaw as part of an inner city playground built during upgrades to George St.
"The message to local government is clear: get your costs under control — Kiwis are doing it tough."
"I mean, how stupid do you have to be," he asked.
Reaction from social media commenters was mixed — some were supportive while others pointed out the overall playground feature had cost less than $600,000 in total.
The council said the play space cost $586,000 and also featured "talk tubes", benches and shading and soft-fall surfaces.
Invoices showed the three seesaws in the playground — a 7m-long, 12m-long and inclusive seesaw — together cost $244,700.
The council had received a $250,000 donation from lead contractor Isaac Construction to go towards the cost of the playground.
Cr Christine Garey said Mr Uffindell was "ill-informed" — "but that's not a surprise".
Children and families loved the playground feature of George St, she said.
"This decision was made long before the cost of living crisis that was caused by his government.
"Did he talk about the huge cost of government regulation imposed by central government on local government? I doubt it."
Cr Andrew Whiley said he and Mr Uffindell attended the same event when the MP was in Dunedin earlier this month where the topic of the seesaws came up.
"I quickly said, 'well, actually, councillors never signed off on the seesaws'," Cr Whiley said.
"I made it quite clear to him that actually councillors had not seen or had the ability to review that prior to it being installed and being signed off by council staff."
Councillors had seen and noted a plan for the play space at an extraordinary planning and environment committee in April 2022, but it did not include the seesaws, Cr Whiley said.
"I never basically understood [how] the playground went from what was in our papers to being what it was finished."
Council central city plan project director Glen Hazelton said councillors voted to note the report in 2022, "including the details on the play space".
The council was "disappointed" by Mr Uffindell's comments.
"The total cost of the entire play space on George St was $586,000," he said.
"At less than 1% of the total budget for George St, we believe the investment in a more people-friendly space is good value for money."
"A number of new retail tenants coming to George St have noted the improvements that make the area more people-friendly, including the play space, as the reason for relocating," Dr Hazelton said.
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