Can’t get on? Well, forget your $3.1m community sports club upgrade
PLANS for a multi-million dollar revamp of a community sporting complex are set to be turfed because the resident bowls and croquet clubs can’t agree on a design.
PLANS for a multi-million dollar revamp of Millswood Sporting Complex are set to be turfed because the resident bowls and croquet clubs cannot agree on a design.
Under Unley Council’s proposal for the upgrade, the precinct’s two bowls greens were to be moved and reduced by about 1.6m to accommodate a new croquet lawn.
Millswood Croquet Club wants the extra lawn to cater for growing player numbers, but Millswood Bowls Club opposes changes, saying it would restrict spectator views of its greens.
Unley councillors heard both arguments at a meeting last week, before conceding a compromise between the clubs was “not achievable”.
Councillors will next month vote to formally shelve plans for the playing areas and focus instead on upgrading the two clubrooms.
Croquet club vice-president Jane Lewis told the meeting the club needed a fourth lawn to accommodate its membership, which had this year increased to 78, up from 51 in 2011.
Mrs Lewis said the proposal would be a “win-win” for the clubs.
“If the council chooses to do nothing then we are left with two clubs stuck in the 20th Century,” Mrs Lewis said.
“Please, I urge you … do not take the easy option.”
But bowls club president Nicholas Meiers said moving the second green would “disconnect” the playing areas from the clubrooms.
“On a Friday night, families sit in the club and have dinner and watch their kids play on the greens,” Mr Meiers told the meeting.
“To have the ‘B’ green around the (side) of the club is a total disconnect from the green itself.”
The council announced plans to upgrade the sport hub in 2014, including a $770,000 upgrade to the bowls clubroom, $126,000 on the croquet rooms, a $390,000 paved communal area and a new 21-space carpark.
About $500,000 was set aside to replace the two turf bowls greens with one smaller synthetic rink, but those plans were scrapped after the bowls club increased its membership.
Cr Don Palmer said with the clubs in disagreement over the playing areas, the council should turn its focus to upgrading the clubrooms.
“The (croquet) clubroom is a death trap … there is a very real chance it could be burnt down it is that old,” Cr Palmer said.
Cr Peter Hughes encouraged the clubs to discuss sharing future additions to the precinct, such new disabled toilets.
After the meeting, croquet club president Robert Adkin said he was pleased the council would upgrade the clubrooms.
But he felt “let down” over its decision to abandon plans for a fourth green.
“We have spent about $50,000 of our own money upgrading the club and have also received a $25,000 State Government grant towards new lights on the assumption that we would get a fourth green,” Mr Adkins said.
Unley’s 2019/20 and 2020/21 long-term financial plan includes a combined $1 million for upgrades to Millswood Sporting Complex and Goodwood Oval.
The council was expected to apply for state and federal government grants when final designs for the sports complex were completed.