Shoalhaven track and field athletes are anything but happy after a rescission motion was launched against the Bomaderry Nowra Regional Sports and Community Precinct Master Plan at a council meeting on Tuesday night.
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Athletics representative Mel Mustapic, who made a presentation to council at the meeting, was disappointed with the result.
“I will be back for the council meeting in January to represent athletics again,” she said.
“This facility offers a venue for the community to be able to engage in activities that offer endless health benefits both physically and mentally.
“Our athletics community see this facility as a pathway for elite development but also as a tremendous community asset.”
Mrs Mustapic said Shoalhaven athletes were forced to travel to Wollongong or Canberra to train or compete on a synthetic surface.
“Athletes have left the Shoalhaven due to lack of training facilities,” she said.
“In 2015 our only grass track was closed for six months while major repairs were carried out on the surface, athletics competitions ground to a halt and athletes were forced to train at substandard venues.”
Mrs Mustapic suggested the precinct would be a benefit to many groups beyond the more than 500 registered local athletes and said schools had indicated they would be interested in using the facility.
“The facility is not only a place to hold various athletics carnivals but also a venue suitable for their many PE classes,” she said.
“The venue would facilitate the annual Shoalhaven Gala day with 500 athletes, Regional Carnivals every four years with 1500 to 2000 athletes, annual Zone Championships with 800 athletes and every five years a State Multi Championships attracting 2000 to 3000 athletes from across the state.
“It would also be proposed the facility would be able to host the NSW Country Championships with over 450 competitors.”
Cr Andrew Guile was one of four councillors against the proposal.
“It looks good on paper for sporting groups but it is of a scale that is very unlikely to be funded into the future,” he said.
Cr Guile suggested the master plan was detrimental to the future of sporting clubs in the Shoalhaven.
“The proposal probably precludes them from applying for small funding grants that won’t meet the standards of the master plan,” he said.
“It is a plan which will hold back sport in the Shoalhaven.”
Cr Guile said the master plan had many hurdles to overcome.
“Traffic, noise and parking are all issues that are going to make a development application over that site very difficult, what council wants is to plonk a massive stadium in a residential area,” he said.
He said the plan was “absolutely imaginary rather than visionary”.
“The plan has gone up without any financial plan, its got no time-frame attached to it, it’s completely open ended and is pie in the sky sort of stuff,” he said.
“I understand many sporting group have worked on this, but I ask them to take a step back and ask themselves if it is realistic.”
Kiama MP Gareth Ward said he supported the upgrading of sporting facilities.
“I am always in favour of upgrading sporting complexes but a lot of local sport complexes need upgrading and repair before council embarks on a further major project,” he said.
“I’m always happy to receive applications from council that support our sporting clubs and I will do my bit for them.”
