Sickle Park Hope Island: Shock pictures reveal chaos after ‘upgrade’

Overgrown, waterlogged and with unsafe playground and barbeque areas fenced off, this may be the Gold Coast’s most awful park. Amazingly, it’s just had a $1.6 million “upgrade”. SEE THE PICTURES >>>

RESIDENTS of an affluent Gold Coast suburb say they are angry a local park has been left overgrown, waterlogged and with playground and barbecue areas fenced off more than a year after work began on a promised upgrade.

Under an agreement with council Brisbane-based Keylin Group has spent $1.6 million on renovation works at Sickle Park, which adjoins luxury waterfront developments near Hope Harbour Marina.

The outlay was part of $4m in infrastructure charges after approval of its $30 million Palladium development. Keylin was also the developer of the next-door Park Cove Residences.

But months after the upgrade was due to be completed concerned residents said the park “looks derelict”, had become a breeding ground for mosquitoes and was a “wonderful habitat” for snakes.

Council-owned play equipment at the site. Picture: Keith Woods.

View towards the toilet block. Picture: Keith Woods.

One local, Mitchell Parkinson, told the Bulletin that as a surveyor who has worked in civil construction for almost a decade, he was especially disappointed with the drainage issues.

“Poorly designed and poorly constructed drainage systems plague the civil construction industry, but generally I see problems around mainly hardscaped areas like car parks where designers are limited by space,” he said.

“To see it so bad on an open park with plenty of overland drainage options really is astonishing.

“Pools of water have been sitting around the park for the past two weeks and are not draining as they should. Consequently, they have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes.”

Mr Mitchell said he and his wife recently cut short a walk at the park because the mosquito problem was “unbearable”. He said local residents were disappointed the park won’t be open for Christmas and wanted someone to “take some responsibility” for the problems.

A pathway at the park. Picture: Keith Woods.

Bins at the park. Picture: Keith Woods.

Other residents raised safety concerns about the playground, claiming the play fort “rocked” and that there were “big gaps” for small children to fall down.

Representatives of Keylin Group and council met at the site on Thursday. Both said they were disappointed with what they encountered at the park and promised to take action.

Keylin Managing Director Louis Cheung said contractors had not completed work to the standard his company expected.

“We’re proud of the vibrant community we have developed in Hope Island over the past six years and, as part of our contribution to local infrastructure, we have contributed $1.6 million to the upgrade of Sickle Park,” Mr Cheung said.

“We are equally disappointed that the works haven’t been completed to the standard that we, and the community, expect.

“We have been seeking rectifications from the contractor for several months and called a meeting onsite with Council representatives on Thursday to show them our concerns. We’ve been advised by the contractor that, pending receipt of the final rectification list from Council, they will be able to complete all outstanding matters.”

Waterlogging beside the fenced off playground. Picture: Keith Woods.

Division 2 councillor William Owen-Jones said the situation was a “schemozzle”.

He said that council had handed over the park to the developer in October 2020 and it was “frustrating” that works had not yet been completed.

“The developer has employed a contractor to do the work,” Cr Owen-Jones said. “The contractor has been on site. They have done some work. They have not finished the work. And the meeting was to get to the bottom of how we fix the things that need to be fixed.”

A fenced-off barbeque area. Picture: Keith Woods.

Cr Owen-Jones said there was a “very long list of defects” that “needed to be rectified”.

“The City is expecting the rectification works identified to be solved,” he said.

“I’m interested in them doing it, I’m interested in them doing it right and I’m interested in the City not bearing the cost.”

Overgrown grass either side of a pathway at the park. Picture: Keith Woods.

Cr Owen-Jones said council will take back maintenance of the overgrown grassed areas because “they need to be fixed”, but was unwilling to take responsibility for the landscaping.

“If you had a look at the landscaping, we are not taking the landscaping on maintenance yet because it needs some work done,” he said.

New equipment at the fenced-off playground. Picture: Keith Woods.

In relation to the playground, Cr Owen-Jones stressed that while there were some issues for the developer or its contractor to address, longstanding equipment including a pirate-styled slide was not part of the upgrade works and would be fixed by City of Gold Coast building maintenance.

The condition of the small toilet block on site was also a matter for council.

Cr Owen-Jones was unable to say when he expected rectification works to be completed.

Follow @keithjwoods

Originally published as Sickle Park Hope Island: Shock pictures reveal chaos after ‘upgrade’