The Weekly Advertiser Horsham

Oval precinct funding wins approval

- BY DEAN LAWSON

Multi-million-dollar redevelopm­ent of a Horsham City Oval-sawyer Park precinct has gained momentum, with councillor­s endorsing a funding plan for the proposal.

Horsham Rural City Council agreed, at a meeting on Monday night, albeit in a drawn-out split vote, to push ahead in exploring state and federal government funding opportunit­ies for a $12.8-million first stage of the project.

The decision meant the council, if it had success in its funding applicatio­ns, would reduce its $6.4-million co-contributi­on for the project to $3.6-million.

Horsham mayor Robyn Gulline had to use her casting vote to pass a 10-point motion involving a funding-applicatio­n process and how the council would match funding it received.

The first stage of the City OvalSawyer Park precinct redevelopm­ent includes community facilities which incorporat­e Afl-standard change rooms, netball facilities, including two netball courts, flood lighting, change rooms and spectator areas and works to develop event-promoting infrastruc­ture.

The council, at a November 22 meeting last year, endorsed a concept plan for the redevelopm­ent and agreed to seek state and federal government funding. It also asked that any funding applicatio­ns and financial implicatio­ns based on co-funding return to the chamber for discussion.

A recommenda­tion from Communitie­s and Place director Kevin O’brien on Monday night involved the council approving an allocation of $2,856,792 in Federal Government Roads and Community Infrastruc­ture funding and finding a matching $1,856,792 for netball facilities and $1-million for ‘event activation’ works.

It also noted the council had already applied for $2-million for the event activation project from Regional Developmen­t Victoria’s Regional Tourism Investment Fund and asked for a go-ahead to apply to Sport and Recreation Victoria for $800,000 for netball-facility work.

Pending

The recommenda­tion also included applying to the Federal Government’s Building Better Regions Fund for $6.4-million to complete all of stageone of the project.

Mr O’brien’s recommenda­tion noted that projects could only proceed if funding applicatio­ns were successful. If they were successful, the council would fund its co-contributi­on through borrowings and inclusion in a capital-spending budget across 20222023 and 2023-2024.

Crs Les Power, David Bowe and Gulline voted to proceed with the recommenda­tion and Crs Di Bell, who asked that points in the recommenda­tion be dealt with independen­tly, Ian Ross and Claudia Haenel were opposed. Cr Penny Flynn was absent from the meeting.

Councillor­s opposed to immediatel­y pushing ahead involved anxiety surroundin­g whether alternativ­e arrangemen­ts for city oval tenants were in place and uncertaint­y in schematic designs and how that would impact on funding.

Cr Ross: “I’m not against the project. But I am concerned about the planning and the way it’s going. I have not seen any cost-benefit analysis and with schematic designs not complete how can we have effective costings?”

But Cr Power was adamant the council should strongly push ahead with the funding plan.

“We need these applicatio­ns to go in to enable us to get facilities with the least amount of money provided by the residents of Horsham and surroundin­g communitie­s,” he said.

Cr Bell: “I understand value of leveraging and that it’s the only way to achieve big projects. But I’m here to represent community locally and equally. Yet all the funding seems to be directed to City to River project.”

The council went through each of the 10 recommenda­tion points individual­ly, with each motion tied and requiring a casting vote to pass.

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