Pressure builds over Belair National Park soccer fields plan, amid 1500 signature-strong petition

A plan to base hundreds of soccer players at a redeveloped Belair Golf Course has kicked off a passionate opposition movement.

Greens MLC Mark Parnell says the area should be revegetated. Picture: AAP Image/Sam Wundke

More than 1500 people have joined calls to stop a soccer development at Belair National Park’s former golf course, amid concern about the loss of conservation land.

But the Sturt Lions say the plan would allow hundreds of juniors to play on the same site, and club members could fundraise through food and drink sales.

Signs calling to save the national park adorn several Upper Sturt Rd properties, with locals raising worries about the effects of traffic, noise and light pollution on animals and nearby homes.

The proposal forms part of a master plan setting out a vision for the site’s future.

Hawthorndene man Tom Fowles, who runs a Facebook page opposing the development and has been promoting a petition, is concerned about Sturt Lions Football Club’s bid to use up to 10ha of the land.

The Belair golf course closed in 2018.

He said it was a “large-scale, high-impact development” serving “a private community club”.

“The impacts of people playing golf are very different to a Saturday with upwards of 500 patrons entering the site for soccer played from 9am until clubrooms are closing,” Mr Fowles said.

Nature playgrounds and indigenous cultural programs would be a more appropriate use of the land, along with some revegetation, he said.

He believed the community also supported new mountain bike trails planned at the site, along with disc golf.

Glenalta’s Tom Morrison, who runs Facebook group 20 Metre Trees, highlighted the loss of trees and a lack of detail on the project.

Greens MLC Mark Parnell wants the former golf course land revegetated. “People think it’s an opportunity to return back to the park something that was carved out in the 1930s,” he said.

The dilapidated former Belair Country Club site.

Sturt Lions Football Club president John Vander Veeken said the project would allow his club to consolidate all of its junior games.

They now play across a string of Hills reserves, local schools and at West Beach.

The proposal includes the equivalent of four full-sized pitches broken into smaller playing areas, and a clubroom. It would also feature carparking and flood lights, attracting more than 1000 visitors a week and allow the Lions to fundraise through drink and food sales.

Mr Vander Veeken said the area had been used for recreation for 130 years. If its bid to set up multiple pitches at Belair was successful, it would require government funding.

Belair National Park is popular with families, hikers, tennis and cricket players. Picture: Supplied.

He said the club was targeting an area requiring minimal vegetation clearance, and locals could use the area outside of games and training.

Environment Minister David Speirs said feedback had shown most people wanted a fire break maintained, rather than the land revegetated.

“I encourage anyone who has an interest in the future of the Belair Golf Course and Country Club precinct to have their say,” he said.

“I have no interest in any project that would see the removal of large numbers of trees from the site and won’t be supporting such an approach.”

A community information session is planned at the golf course’s former function centre on Saturday, March 20, from 1-3pm. Visit yoursay.sa.gov.au for more information.

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