Fee waiver for sport club grounds considered by council

OUR sport clubs are doing it tough after the COVID-19 shutdown and the Toowoomba Regional Council floated one idea to help them

Steven Ward for Highfields against Stanthorpe United as Toowoomba Football League Premier Men 2020 competition is restarted at Highfields Sport Park, Saturday, July 11, 2020. Picture: Kevin Farmer

THE Toowoomba Regional Council will look to waive winter park hire fees to relieve financial pressure on sporting clubs as they recover from the COVID-19 shut down.

This was one of the ideas discussed at a finance and business strategy committee meeting yesterday.

"As a council, we have been looking at ways in which we can support and help our community through this pandemic," Deputy Mayor Geoff McDonald said.

"This included a $125 rates rebate from May, accompanied by a number of other financial relief measures for our residents.

"Following this we dedicated $50 million in our budget to a pandemic package and made it clear that we would continue to consider further ways in which we could support our community, including our sporting organisations."

The council will also look at deferring the reintroduction of card surcharges of 0.33 per cent for all bank card transactions.

Both recommendations will be put to a vote on July 21.

If approved, the card surcharge will be reviewed when considering the 2021/22 register of fees and charges.

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