Murchison-Toolamba Football Netball Club president Craig Thompson has lashed out at Greater Shepparton City Council for not helping the club upgrade “barbaric” facilities he calls “dangerous, not fit for purpose and frankly an embarrassment”.
Mr Thompson wrote an open letter to council after council’s response to the club’s request for funding, which said council “historically has not committed to capital budget projects that are located on land not owned by council”.
The club has been trying to get upgrades to dilapidated clubrooms and crumbling netball courts for years, with Mr Thompson himself describing the facilities as the worst in the Kyabram District League, in which Murchison-Toolamba plays.
The land the club’s facilities are based on is owned by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.
There are no netball changerooms, and members of the public have to share three toilet cubicles, with no disabled toilet access at the facility.
“I wonder why anyone would want to play at Murchison-Toolamba Football Netball Club when they are subjected to such barbaric conditions,” Mr Thompson said.
“We have many incarnations of plans in our filing cabinets that tell a sad story of dying dreams and enthusiasm of administrators that have pushed to remedy the situation over the years and failed.”
City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Shane Sali said while historically council didn’t put money towards projects not on land it owned, it didn’t mean it never would.
Cr Sali said council was in the process of designing a proposal but would need to have conversations with DELWP to determine how to proceed.
“If you don’t own an asset, you want to be careful investing a lot of money into it,” he said.
“Councillors had a tour after we were elected and we’ve committed to the first step, which is the $80,000 to do a detailed design.
“We’re drawing up a design and (ownership of the land) will be part of the conversation, but until we know what we’re working with, it’s hard.”
He said leases of the land by council could be something discussed with DEWLP, but agreed the clubrooms needed work.
“I walked into the home rooms in 2013 after doing a training session down there and thought they were the away rooms, because they’re normally a bit worse than the home rooms,” he said.
“It’s challenging to run a football netball club. I know it’s not easy. We know the cost to run and organise clubs and how important it is to bring in more volunteers and players.”