Rocket wins playground showdown

The 'Rocket' has claimed a narrow victory over the 'Mars Lander' after the public voted on their preferred playground design for the Patton Park refurbishment.

The Mars Lander design took an early lead when a Facebook survey was launched on July 2, but nearly 400 kids took to the polls at schools, kindergartens, and day care centres in the city's South and pushed the Rocket to victory.

Tallying was completed this week, with the Rocket finishing on 266 votes, followed by the Mars Lander on 259 and the Castle on 98.

Council's Chief Operations Officer, Anthony Misagh, thanked the public for their assistance in choosing a design.

"The engagement process was really interesting, we had a lot of adults favouring the Mars Lander design as it sits under a large shade shed, however the Rocket was a clear favourite amongst the kids," he said.

"We've taken the feedback about shade on board, and we'll now go back to the designer of the Rocket and request a cap or similar modification at the top to provide extra shade.

"We also got some great feedback about complications that can arise from having tube slides in a public area, so we'll probably look to tweak the design again to have open slides if possible."

Mr Misagh said Council staff would now look to finalise an overall design for the park for Council consideration.

"I think we're pretty settled on designs for toilets and a BBQ area, so we'll have our final conversations with the Rocket supplier and produce an overall park design that we'll aim to take to next month's Council meeting.

"Once we get the tick of approval from Councillors we'll be looking to get work underway as soon as possible.

"We'd just like to thank the public for their great response to this project, and also the teachers and carers who helped us get feedback from the kids."