Gosford Council Field Restrictions

[LeedsMariner#4]

marinermick said:

If anyone drives past Ourimbah they will notice that it is looking an absolute treat - always does this time of the year. By the end of the season it will be a dust bowl.

This just proves that the problem is not the drought but overuse at training as there is only one area lit up and so many teams that have to compete for oval space.

As has been mentioned before the problem is the council's lack of planning and development of ovals, not the drought.

same thing with most grounds, they all start of looking gret but to over use they become almost dangerous to play on
i must admit i dont disagree with restricting training on ovals to protect the playing fields, but there is a definate need for more fields on the coast

[Jesus]

Tezza never looks good, only from a distance. But does fall away very quickly once the season starts, especially with one match played in the rain. Even little rain seems to be enough to make the grass loose enough to be taken easilt by studs.

Perhaps they should be trying to affect the studs players use too. Save the grounds from some unnecessary extra punishment. And if they dont play matches in the rain, then no one needs the longer studs.

[marinermick]

greenpoleffc said:

Why cant OUFC pump water out of the creek or use bore water that is rumoured to be under the site???

Agree it looks fabulous, maybe some lights on the little kids pitch area might take some strain off the main pitch.

don't know why they cannot use the bore water but that is managed by council

lights on the little field should be up before the start of the season

[curious]

Most (even councils) people have the notion that because the weather cools down following summer, playing surfaces needs little or no maintenance. Water in particular. Over use of fields of course contibutes to wear, but lack of maintenance exacerbates the problem more than most realise. Then again, water supply will remain a problem in the foreseeable future.

[marinermick]

Dibo, can you give us some information on how to form a political party for the local elections?

I reckon a "Save Our Sport" party would get some votes.

[marinermick]

Oh, as a side comment, do people realise that the Gosford City Council Councilor's mobile phone budget is bigger than its youth budget!

[thetoffeemen]

No, that would not surprise anyone considering they are the worst performing council in NSW. Have you seen the town centre, actually now theirs a thought, lets demolish the town centre as know one shops anyway and put in football fields, then everyone will go.

[greenpoleffc]

If Gosford has town planners, then the centre of the town must (in logic) be a deliberate result of their vision and effort - go figure.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

marinermick said:

Dibo, can you give us some information on how to form a political party for the local elections?

I reckon a "Save Our Sport" party would get some votes.

i don't think that this is a really good idea. building a membership, registering a party, arranging candidates and then running the campaign is not an easy process. *and* there are no elections until next year. and on a purely political level - more people don't play sport than do, and single issue candidates struggle to get a foothold, mostly because people care about mroe than one thing, and making your issue the issue that decides where their vote is going is harder than it sounds. you've got a better chance in gosford than most places because it's a 10 candidate PR ballot, but it's still somewhere between none and buckley's chance of getting up to a quota (roughly 9% or 8000 votes) and get elected. you'd at best be a feeder for someone else.

a better idea would be to engage with the councillors you've got to see if there are ways you can get them activated.

all the councillors' contact details are here (gosford) and here (wyong). i encourage you to get in contact with them.

alternatively, members of the public can address council at a meeting - details here (gosford) and here (wyong).

councils can't adopt policies or ideas they don't know about. councils also can't respond to comments and complaints they don't hear. it's essential to get the most out of your councillors to get in touch with them, and let them know what you're thinking.

************************

on the state of the fields - people last winter were complaining about grounds being closed when they were wet (even if only moderately). now people are complaining that grounds are too dry and they're getting broken up. people are complaining about overuse and overcrowding. these are all complicated and sometimes conflicting problems.

it's very hard and expensive for councils to create new fields. land simply costs a lot. for every football pitch (just the pitch) you're looking at something in the order of 6 blocks of land. there's no junior fields in that either.

for every pitch, you've got considerable costs in watering, mowing and other maintenance that has to be factored in. that's before we get to lighting costs (installation is enormously expensive, and running the lights costs a lot and annoys the neighbours). and grounds can't have full-time caretakers, and the grounds are used all year through. when we're in a situation where we simply don't have the water available to do intensive maintenance on grounds then we've got to ease up on the grounds. it's really as simple as that.

so short of forced resumptions of land and spending many more millions on care and maintenance (including things like trucking water in or fast-tracking a de-sal or water recycling plant) meaning that you're all going to pay through increased water bills and increased rates (and if you're a renter, rents) we've got a problem until the drought breaks at least.

it's not an issue isolated to the central coast either - in sydney we're under water restrictions as well that limit watering of fields, and quite frankly our fields are in much worse conditions than gavenlock oval was ever in when i was playing for city (including the mid-90's drought/el nino period).

so i guess i'm saying that people need to be mindful of the fact that the problem's not simple, and that council need to be made well aware of the issue and have a chance to respond.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

marinermick said:

Oh, as a side comment, do people realise that the Gosford City Council Councilor's mobile phone budget is bigger than its youth budget!

source?

[Bearinator]

My uncle was once part of a party who were for lowering prices on beer. That was the only thing they stood for. I think what the point was dibo is that at least it looks good that someone is trying to do something.

[marinermick]

dibo said:

marinermick said:

Oh, as a side comment, do people realise that the Gosford City Council Councilor's mobile phone budget is bigger than its youth budget!

source?

someone who works for council that i dare not name

[marinermick]

all the issues you identified dibo are ones that have arisen through lack of planning over many years

the council has messed up in terms of delivering recreation space to its rate payers and families

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

marinermick said:

dibo said:

source?

someone who works for council that i dare not name

it'd be available in budget papers. councils have to be accountable, and if that's true it'd be in the official documents.

[dru]

greenpoleffc said:

If Gosford has town planners, then the centre of the town must (in logic) be a deliberate result of their vision and effort - go figure.

They do, but the town centre has been pretty much the same for 20 years that I can remember. The much hyped new
marina was being thrown around council 10 years ago.

You can also go higher than local government to get a development approved so while they may have a vision it may be hijacked by developers.

For those old enough to remember when the picture theatre used to be in gosford the town centre was actually the place to go. pre Erina fair anyway. but times change. And having said that Gosford doesn't do that badly there are few empty shops along the main strip so obviously there are enough people shopping to support these buisnesses.

The problem with town planning is once the streets are in it is vey difficult to change a place. I dare say the in vogue ideas of town planning have probably changed 4 times in the last 20 years.

If i remember correctly local councils do not have the power to make forced resumption of lands, only state government do, and even for them it is an expensive excersise.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

marinermick said:

all the issues you identified dibo are ones that have arisen through lack of planning over many years

the council has messed up in terms of delivering recreation space to its rate payers and families

it's not lack of planning, it's lack of cash. it's a cost to the council to set aside larger proportions of a given subdivision to parks - more land to develop and maintain, less land to earn rates from.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

dru said:

greenpoleffc said:

If Gosford has town planners, then the centre of the town must (in logic) be a deliberate result of their vision and effort - go figure.

They do, but the town centre has been pretty much the same for 20 years that I can remember. The much hyped new
marina was being thrown around council 10 years ago.

You can also go higher than local government to get a development approved so while they may have a vision it may be hijacked by developers.

For those old enough to remember when the picture theatre used to be in gosford the town centre was actually the place to go. pre Erina fair anyway. but times change. And having said that Gosford doesn't do that badly there are few empty shops along the main strip so obviously there are enough people shopping to support these buisnesses.

The problem with town planning is once the streets are in it is vey difficult to change a place. I dare say the in vogue ideas of town planning have probably changed 4 times in the last 20 years.

If i remember correctly local councils do not have the power to make forced resumption of lands, only state government do, and even for them it is an expensive excersise.

a lot of these issues were canvassed in this thread.

[Jesus]

Doesnt the state government currently have control for Gosford centres planning? Didnt they take it from the council last year due to council doing nothing?

[marinermick]

dibo said:

marinermick said:

all the issues you identified dibo are ones that have arisen through lack of planning over many years

the council has messed up in terms of delivering recreation space to its rate payers and families

it's not lack of planning, it's lack of cash. it's a cost to the council to set aside larger proportions of a given subdivision to parks - more land to develop and maintain, less land to earn rates from.

they get sizeable kickbacks from developers for zoning land for subdivision. This money is supposed to be used for the development of infrastructure including ovals.

When you have an almost doubling of the population in the last decade with little provision for recreation space and very few new ovals I call it a lack of planning.

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

jesus said:

Doesnt the state government currently have control for Gosford centres planning? Didnt they take it from the council last year due to council doing nothing?

yes and no, in that order. see here.