Northern Beaches Council considers replacing Warringah Golf Course with fields for more popular sports
SHOULD the council remove at least one of the northern beaches’ seven public golf courses to create more room for other sports?
Manly
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A GOLF war has started on the peninsula, with the Northern Beaches Council considering plans to halve, or possibly demolish, Warringah Golf Course.
Community sporting groups have lobbied the council, arguing the demand for sports fields is greater than golf, which has had a 10 per cent decline in participation in the last decade.
Sports like soccer and cricket, which have seen huge spikes, have led the charge.
But Warringah Golf Club president Scott Campbell has criticised the council, which he said had reneged on a promise to put the District Park plan of management out to tender.
This would guarantee an extra 20 years for the club.
“We would be extremely upset (if the club was axed) and we would pursue the matter a lot further through the State Government,” Mr Campbell said.
“I can’t see how an administrator could come in and make an arbitrary decision, especially given we had a two-year consultation period where the community backed the retention of the 18-hole course — there was a report that costed $250,000.
“(Previously), the sporting bodies had the opportunity to make representations, and they didn’t.”
The council stressed that no decision had been made.
The District Park plan would have allowed one body to manage the Warringah Golf Course, North Manly Bowling and Recreation Club and the Warringah Recreation Centre areas, with all three leases expiring in August 2017.
Instead, administrator Dick Persson will decide whether to conduct the review of golf courses at the September 27 council meeting.
If he calls for a review, it is likely the first golf course on the chopping block would be Warringah, as its lease is the next to expire.
Mr Campbell said the club would have to reconsider its options on the planned sale of its clubhouse to aged-care developers, the Moran Group.
It had planned to build a new clubhouse closer to the greens.
“It means the community could lose out on a $20 million aged-care investment as well,” he said.
Mr Campbell said it was the “working class” golf course, offering casual rates cheaper than most competitors.
He pointed out that six of the peninsula’s 13 courses were private and unaffordable to the casual golfer
Mr Persson said a review was “a unique opportunity for (the) council to hear what the whole community has to say about how the land should be used, now and into the future, before any tenders or leases exclude the broader community having a say”.
The council’s general manager Mark Ferguson said three merged councils had to consider their sporting field portfolio as a whole.
“Given the council has seven public courses, it has some flexibility to work out how it could benefit to existing Warringah users at the same time as providing a much better public open space network,” Mr Ferguson said.
“We haven’t made our minds up, there is no clear position.
“But I think if we are going to lock up 62ha of land for another 20 years, we need to have the discussion.”
The Manly Warringah Pittwater Sporting Union represents 45,000 people.
Union secretary Kelvin Millsom said it supported a review.
“In that particular golf course, there is a view that if the southern nine was converted to open space and sports fields, there may be better public access,” Mr Millsom said.
Cricketers could stand to benefit, with numbers increasing 45 per cent in the last five years.
Northern Beaches Cricket Council chairman Tony Pecar said it was already above capacity.
“We use every ground in the area, plus all available school grounds on weekends ... we are desperate for grounds, so we have got to look at how to supply those,” Mr Pecar said.
Similarly, the peninsula’s most populated sport, football, is craving more fields.
Warringah Football Association president Jeff Smit said it had received one new field in the last 20 years, which was an additional one at Cromer Park.
“We are very short of sporting fields. Football numbers have grown over 30 per cent to 18,0000 — we were running 13,000 10 years ago,” Mr Smit said.
Former Warringah mayor Michael Regan supported the review.
“Yes, Warringah supported the lease and were preparing the tender for it, but the sporting groups were right,” Mr Regan said.
“They have asked the general manager and administrator to look at having a positive conversation with the entire community about whether or not it was a good idea.
“Before we lock the land up for another 20-year lease, we need to ask if that is the best decision for the northern beaches or not.”
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