Dingley Football Netball Club, Dingley Dog Walkers vying for space at new Spring Rd reserve

A BATTLE is heating up in Melbourne’s south over whether a newly created park should be used for sports ovals or for an off-leash dog area.

Dingley Community members are calling for the recently opened Spring Road reserve to be turned into an off-leash dog park. Picture: Chris Eastman

TWO flourishing sporting clubs and a 120-member dog-walking group are all vying for use of a newly created public park.

The former landfill site, now 38ha of reserve in Spring Rd, Dingley Village, has been earmarked by Kingston Council as a possible site for two new ovals.

HAVE YOUR SAY: What should Spring Rd Reserve be used for? Tell us below.

But Dingley Dog Owners wants all or part of the reserve as an off-leash area.

The council is assessing three sites – Spring Rd and two privately owned pieces of land in Dingley – for a $4.6 million cricket and football facility to cater to the area’s burgeoning sports clubs.

Cricketers Thomas Waring, Darren Wright, Kent Waring and footballer Lachlan Benton, who play at Souter oval, hope to get new ovals at Spring Rd Reserve. Picture: Chris Eastman

Dingley Football Netball Club president Colin Craney said a Dingley Village sporting precinct “would be the dream”.

Mr Craney said the club’s home ground at Souter Oval was overused in winter.

“We can have up to nine games on the ground on a Saturday and the centre and goal squares just get ripped up,” he said.

In 2016, the club fielded six senior male teams, 17 junior teams and two junior girls’ teams.

Mr Craney hoped the new facility would incorporate four unisex change rooms.

Dingley Cricket Club president Kent Waring said the club, which also uses Souter Oval, was in urgent need of new facilities to deal with a growing membership.

The club may field up to seven senior men’s teams during the 2016-17 season on top of 11 junior sides, a women’s team and clinics for 120 children aged under 10.

“We are so far away from other grounds such as Kingston Heath,” Mr Waring said.

“Assuming the right facilities are built, we will relocate there. It will be fantastic to have a facility where we can have two games of cricket going side-by-side.”

Dingley Dog Owners’ member Eric Forcey said his group felt the reserve presented “an exciting opportunity”.

Mr Forcey was confident a sports facility and off-leash dog park could coexist.

Kingston planning general manager Jonathan Guttmann said the council was open to investigating an off-leash area in a section of the Spring Rd reserve.