Toowoomba Netball fear for players as lighting battle continues with council

Fears for the safety of their players, volunteers and supporters have forced Toowoomba Netball to take their ‘battle’ with Toowooomba Regional Council public. Find out what is happening here.

Toowoomba Netball Association U13A players (from left) Maya Cameron, Lola Marjoribanks and Elsa Bradshaw stand courtside as the association takes issue with council's lack of maintenance with lighting and other facility matters. Picture: Kevin Farmer

How many councillors does it take to change a light bulb? At least two according to Toowoomba Netball Association.

More than a year after first contacting Toowoomba Regional Council about broken court and carpark light bulbs there is a dim light at the end of the tunnel for TNA and its 2000-plus active members.

A terse email to every councillor and media pressure from The Chronicle earlier this week resulted in two councillors and other members of council reaching out to TNA to discuss ‘work orders’ to fix a broken bulb in one of the towers that light some of the courts at Nell E Robinson Park – the home of Toowoomba netball.

“It’s disappointing and frustrating that it got to this stage,” TNA board member Adam Marjoribanks said.

“We contacted council more than a year ago about the broken bulbs in our tower and carpark but it took an email to the mayor, every individual councillor and pressure from The Chronicle before there was any action.

“Council has since discussed replacing the bulb in Tower 11, which is a small win but I will believe it when I see it.”

Council have also committed to redirecting light towers to “ensure continued maximum performance of the infrastructure in the immediate term”.

The action is a welcome change but TNA’s fight is not over.

TNA is the Garden City’s largest female sports organisation and the health and safety of those players is at risk due to inadequate lighting according to Marjoribanks.

“Our lighting is not up to standard,” he said.

“We have 11 courts with lighting and I would say seven of those just meet the safety standard from a training and playing perspective.

“In our carpark the lighting is almost non-existent with both of the light poles broken.

“Two people, a parent and a player, injured themselves last year because they couldn’t see where they were going in the dark in the carpark.

“Members of our community have also noticed homeless people setting up camp in the carpark because of how dark it is. We understand that is not a council issue but the lack of lighting combined with that issue is a massive concern for our mostly female members.”

Toowoomba Netball Association U13A players (from left) Maya Cameron, Elsa Bradshaw and Lola Marjoribanks. Picture: Kevin Farmer

TNA said the current lighting problems are the result of more than two decades of inattention and a lack of significant investment stretching back almost as far.

With TNA introducing Twilight and summer competitions in recent years the courts at Nell E Robinson are in continual use year round with training taking place four nights a week and competition matches played on weekends.

TNA says the lack of adequate facilities is stunting the growth of the game and its players.

“It (the poor lighting) makes it difficult to implement a quality training program,” Marjoribanks said.

“In some cases, with our rep program, we’re having to jam two teams on one court so instead of being able to do full court play with just the 10 players we’re having to do half court drills because we have twice as many players on the court.

“I look at the money that is put into male sports, the facility upgrades they have had over the past two decades at most of the football grounds around town and then I look at Nell E Robinson.

“We did have a recent upgrade to our amenities block but prior to that there hadn’t been an upgrade in over 40 years.

“In terms of the lighting, nothing has changed in well over two decades. We’re still running on the old stuff (lighting) when an upgrade to LEDs would ultimately save money in the long term.

“We just seem to be neglected when other smaller facilities used by less people are being upgraded.

Toowoomba Netball Association takes issue with council's lack of maintenance with lighting and other facility matters. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“The region is potentially missing on millions of dollars of investment as well because we are unable to host state titles which generally attract more than 5000 people to the host venue.”

Toowoomba Regional Council Environment and Community Services general manager Nick

Hauser said they are committed to supporting and developing women’s sport in the region.

“Council’s ongoing support for encouraging greater sports participation, including for female

participants, is demonstrated in the current funding allocation to replace the Kearneys Spring

clubhouse and amenities,” Hauser said.

“These facilities service Toowoomba’s main touch football and softball competitions, which also boast impressive female participation rates.

“Council strives to ensure its provision of playing fields and associated infrastructure meets the needs of local and regional level sporting competitions.

“While we’d always like to do more, Council has many competing priorities which need to be funded from a finite budget, which is further challenged by well-known critical infrastructure needs.

“An audit and condition assessment of the lighting structures (at Nell E Robinson Park) has also been scheduled this financial year and the results from that report will be used to consider the scheduled renewal of the light towers against council’s other priorities.”