South West Rocks: New centre to enhance performance of Mid-North Coast athletes, sportspeople
A multi-level grandstand fitted-out with sports training and function rooms, media facilities, a coaches box and change rooms will be built at South West Rocks.
Mid-North Coast
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A state-of-the art $5 million high-performance centre will be built at South West Rocks after approval was given for the multi-level facility to proceed.
Featuring a multi-level grandstand, function room, amenities and sports training facility, the new centre will be built by construction company Lipman, and bring to life a visionary project for Kempsey Shire Council to enhance sporting pathways for athletes living and playing in the Macleay Valley.
Kempsey Shire Council’s Director Operations and Planning, Robert Fish, acknowledged it has been a long and complex project to move from community vision to a facility that is now designed, funded and able to be constructed.
“Council worked with the South West Rocks Sport and Recreation Committee to secure $2.5 million in funding under the 2018 Regional Sports Infrastructure Fund,” he said.
The South West Rocks Country Club have also confirmed a contribution of almost $400,000.
It will include a 781 seat grandstand with 18 wheelchair spaces, change rooms, disabled amenities, flexible use community sport and recreation areas, media broadcast and coaches boxes, upgraded sports field LED lighting and perimeter fencing.
Member for Oxley, Melinda Pavey MP, said the new three-storey multi-sport and training facility will meet the current and future needs of the local community and the region.
“This new state-of-the-art complex will fill a gap in high performance infrastructure and capabilities for athletes, coaches and officials across a range of sports in the Mid North Coast region.
“It is very, very exciting.
“South West Rocks already has a strong and vibrant sporting culture, and this complex will enable it to become a sporting hub – with facilities and support services to cater for high-performance sporting events, as well as all the associated education, training, sport health, sports science and sports administration.”
“I congratulate the sport-minded proponents in the South West Rocks community, Kempsey Shire Council and all those who worked on the project to bring it from a vision to this reality.”
The need for additional sporting and recreational facilities in South West Rocks, was identified in the Macleay Valley Sports Strategy (2017).
The Strategy found that South West Rocks has relatively low levels of sporting facility provision and that projected future growth would exacerbate this further.
Council will hold a value management workshop with key stakeholders to investigate further opportunities in the project delivery, including the possibility of contributions from suppliers to the Country Club and other Council resources to achieve the most favourable outcome.
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