On Tuesday night, Shoalhaven City Council’s recommendation to introduce a user pays system for sporting grounds has been deferred until sporting groups have been consulted.
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Council staff have proposed each sporting association pays a fee for grounds used, based on the size of the fields, and that each player pays a fee, on top of registration, for each sport they play.
Shoalhaven District Cricket Association president Craig Howsan declared the “sporting tax” would devastate families involved in sport.
“If for instance a mum and dad, and three kids each play two sports, it would cost the family an extra thousand dollars a year,” he said.
“It would see twilight cricket fold instantly, it would take registration from $300 to $750 per team.”
Shoalhaven Councillor Patricia White said it would be another blow to sporting bodies that regularly miss out on local government infrastructure funding.
“Sporting groups have been getting the last piece of the pie for years,” she said.
Mr Howsan agreed.
“There’s a severe lack of suitable fields,” he said.
“If you have state of the art facilities, you should pay for that, but when you have grounds that fail to meet standard, why should we pay?”
He said many sporting community members were not aware council has been considering the tax.
“When they hear about it, they’ll go nuts,” Mr Howsan said.
Shoalhaven sports board chair David Goodman has been in the process of penning a letter to organisations that will be affected by the recommendation, if it’s passed.
He said sporting groups have contributed many millions of dollars towards sporting facility maintenance on council-owned grounds.
Over the next couple of months the sports board will host a meeting where residents can have their say on the matter.