Whittlesea Council to invest $72m into basketball, netball courts after years of inaction
Whittlesea Council has unveiled a $72 million plan to bring its basketball and netball courts into the 21st century. The investment comes as a report reveals almost half the municipality’s players are looking elsewhere for playing time.
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Almost half of Whittlesea’s netballers and basketballers are choosing to play in leagues outside the municipality due to a lack of decent courts, a new report has found.
And none of the council’s owned or operated basketball and netball courts are compliant with current standards.
The council document showed 51 per cent of registered Whittlesea netballers and 46 per cent of basketballers were opting for better facilities in neighbouring municipalities.
As a result, the council will spend $72 million across a 22-year plan to improve high court infrastructure.
The Whittlesea Netball and Basketball Plan 2019-41 estimated the delivery of 28 new or upgraded outdoor netball courts across 10 sites and 16 new basketball courts by 2030.
It recommended six basketball courts and eight netball courts to be built at the Mernda Sports Hub by 2024 and 10 basketball courts and two netball courts at the Epping Regional Recreation Reserve by 2030.
Donnybrook Indoor Sports Stadium would also get six new basketball courts by 2041 under the plan.
Former Laurimer Netball Club vice-president Kath Scott said clubs across Whittlesea had started a new league to include more clubs across the city’s northern suburbs so players could gain access to more courts.
Now Northern Pride Netball Association co-ordinator, Ms Scott said the municipality had suffered from a lack of facilities for “too long”.
“Laurimer itself was the second largest club in Whittlesea, yet we were playing out of Diamond Creek,” she said.
“Hopefully this new strategy will resolve a number of issues netball clubs have been facing in the city for a long time.”
Cr Ricky Kirkham said the council had failed to invest in an indoor sports facility since the 1989-92 era and apologised to the community.
“We’ve gone backwards and the council’s got to wear some of the blame for the failures in respect to providing adequate facilities for young people, families and also adults,” he said.
“Football and soccer have dominated council’s investment over a long period of time and it’s time that changes.”
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Cr Kirkham challenged the council to put the plan into action immediately.
“When we use the term plan we actually need actions and funding,” he said.
“What I don’t want to see is in 10 years time we look back at the provisional document and we haven’t backed it up with money.
“What we actually have to do is start putting ourselves out there — putting our funds in the budget so we can meet the demands of young ones, families and adults in our growing city.”
Of the $72 million required to execute the plan, $38 million is allocated to projects through developer contributions and the council’s long-term financial plan.
But the $34 million deficit would be “considered as part of council’s future infrastructure planning and prioritisation”.
Councillors Caz Monteleone and Norm Kelly backed the plan but said the $72 million figure was an “exorbitant” amount.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Cr Kelly said.
“I’m sure other similar strategies across Melbourne have been delivered for much cheaper.”