Cricket Victoria’s plan to install four 50-metre light towers at a St Kilda sports oval is facing opposition from nearby apartment residents, who worry about the bright lights beaming into their homes.
More than 150 people have signed a petition calling for the $6 million project at Junction Oval to be halted and an independent health assessment to be carried out. The residents say community consultation has been “wholly inadequate”.
Jin Li, Rebecca Silver, Taras Kontek, Mike Samos and Suzanne Gooda live alongside Junction Oval and are concerned about a plan to erect light towers.Credit: Photograph by Chris Hopkins
Cricket Victoria chief executive Nick Cummins says the broadcast-quality lights would not spill into neighbouring apartments and would allow the boutique oval to host prime-time evening matches, creating more television exposure, particularly for women’s cricket.
He says Victoria lacks a small cricket stadium capable of hosting night games like North Sydney Oval in NSW, and points to the lights at Frankston Oval as a similar example of the plans.
However, Taras Kontek, the chairman of the Mansion Apartments owners’ corporation, said the Junction Oval proposal was different because high-rises were close to the venue and light towers would loom over them.
“I could throw a marble from my balcony and it would hit the roof of the CitiPower Centre. It’s not set back in a park precinct,” he said.
“The increased light pollution will definitely impact everyone’s liveability. We also don’t understand just how often these are going to be used.”
Kontek said other body corporates nearby were also surprised to learn of Cricket Victoria’s plans.
He said most residents in his multistorey building on Queens Road first heard about the plans in a letter that arrived on March 19. A project information session was scheduled at the Junction Oval that night, but the late notice meant many couldn’t go.
“It has left a particularly poor taste in the mouth of residents,” Kontek said.
Bridie Williams’ apartment overlooks Junction Oval from Fitzroy Street. Other high-rises with concerned residents are in the background.Credit: Photograph by Chris Hopkins
Cummins admitted attendance at the first drop-in session was “pretty poor” as a letter mailed the week before was slow to arrive.
But he said another consultation meeting was planned for Monday so residents could raise their concerns and learn about the project.
“It’s a live discussion at the moment,” he said. “There are a hardcore group of people who, I dare say, are implacable … But there is another group of people who want to understand more, and they’re the people that particularly we want to engage with.”
Cricket Victoria has released a diagram showing what it claims would be the light spill from four towers proposed for the Junction Oval. It does not show surrounding towers.Credit: Cricket Victoria
Cummins said the proposed LED lights were the least intrusive option available and the designs showed they would illuminate no further than Queens Road and Fitzroy Street.
“[They] will not be shining into people’s lounge rooms,” he said.
Joanne Collins, who organised the “Stop the 50m Stadium Lights at Junction Oval” petition, said residents were initially given little time to respond to the proposal.
“We’ve been left in the dark – that’s my concern,” she said. “We were treated as an afterthought.”
Taras Kontek (centre) says his apartment is just a stone’s throw away from Junction Oval.Credit: Photograph by Chris Hopkins
The community consultation period has been extended to April 7, and Cricket Victoria wants to submit an application to Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny later that month.
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