Meeting calls for new facility

June 2018 | Sharon Webb

MEANDER VALLEY Council will consider buying land adjacent to the Deloraine Community Complex for an extended recreation precinct for the western end of the municipality.

A motion at a public meeting held in Deloraine in May urged Meander Valley Council to “progress the project”, including buying the land to be used for a new football ground.

Around 70 people, many from the town’s five major sports teams, attended the meeting at the Community Complex.

Two other motions supported by the meeting were that Meander Valley Council: • Recognises that current facilities for sport and recreation in Deloraine no longer meet the needs of users, both present and future; • Supports the development of the proposed precinct at Alveston Drive, as outlined in the feasibility study.

Corey Youd from the Meander Valley Regional Recreation Precinct Working Group said that several months after the release of a feasibility study on the precinct, it was time for the council to get behind the project.

“The public meeting showed there is a lot a public support for this,” he said. “The total cost is $33m but the working group would like to move into phase one, costing $13.3m and incorporating facilities for football, squash and netball.”

Meander Valley Council’s general manager, Martin Gill, said council would further investigate lifecycle and maintenance costs of the proposal: “The cost as it is planned now is $33m but there will also be an ongoing cost to the community forever.”

The plan for an enlarged recreation precinct began more than two years ago, when sports groups joined to form the Meander Valley Regional Recreation Precinct Working Group.

The group aimed to house basketball, netball, football, squash and little athletics at Deloraine’s Alveston Drive Community Complex.

The need for the move was emphasised when 2016 winter floods damaged football and squash facilities.

In January of this year, a $98,000 feasibility study came up with three options for consolidating Deloraine sports facilities.

The option preferred by councillors and the working group was to consolidate sporting, recreation and community facilities at the Deloraine Community Complex site. It included buying adjoining private land and upgrading the Deloraine Primary School sports ground.