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Indoor sports groups see red

Posted on July 20, 2011

SUNRAYSIA’S indoor sporting groups are seething over Mildura Rural City Council’s decision to scrap the existing masterplan for the Mildura South sporting complex and start again.

The complex is to include two major sporting ovals, one of which will be AFL-standard and major indoor sporting facilities.
Council’s chief executive officer Mark Henderson conceded this week the decision to re-do the masterplan would set the project back about three years.

NOT HAPPY: Indoor sporting groups spokesman Paul Freckleton said by restarting masterplanning for the sporting complex it will take longer than the predicted three years to see work on the ground.

The move follows a decision by Councillors last week not to compulsorily acquire a strip of land in San Mateo which had been identified in the original masterplan, following opposition by some affected land-holders.

It means a new masterplan will need to be undertaken, angering indoor sporting groups who’ve been campaigning for the project for many years.

Spokesman Paul Freckleton said this week that by starting again Council was effectively wasting the ratepayers’ money that went into the original plan.

“This masterplan has already been out for community consultation, there have been community meetings, everyone understood they had to acquire this land before the plan was adopted,” Mr Freckleton said.

“No-one said it was a bad idea at the time. The Council adopted it and as soon as it gets a bit hard they’ve back-pedalled,” he said, referring to opposition from land-holders who stood to have their land compulsorily acquired and the decision not to go ahead with the move last week.

“They’ve (Council) basically spat in the face of the 6000 indoor sporting users who desperately need this complex.”

Mr Henderson said this week that without the land which was to be compulsorily acquired, a new masterplan was needed, given other land needs to be secured. Only then could detailed design work be started.

This alone could cost several hundred thousand dollars.

However with two other major projects – the riverfront re-development and upgrades at Mildura Airport – plus ongoing recovery efforts following February’s severe floods, all of which had already attracted government funding, there were other funding priorities to consider.

Mr Freckleton meanwhile said much of the work done by Sunraysia’s indoor sporting groups in recent years had been based on the project starting by Christmas this year.

“Our whole process of what we planned to do in volleyball, for example, is based on this stadium,” he said.

“Every decision we’ve made is a step towards that complex.

“This just deflates a lot of the indoor sporting groups because they’ve been trying to maintain their numbers with no room to grow for so long now, and then this happens.”

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