Gosford Council Field Restrictions

[mariners4ever]

yesterday had my first training at narara valley high
IMO the field in most parts is probably worse than gavenlock at its worse its full of mud
and i have to play there tommorrow

[offtheball]

Was down at Hylton Moore the other day. There is room for another field there.

[curious]

Just wondering how many pushing for what will cost a heap of cash, would be willing to accept a rate increase to pay for it. Spending what won't be a small amount on a single school is one thing. Where does the money come from to expand the trend ?

[offtheball]

Council isn't allowed to impose a hefty increase in rates. It needed to be factored in when they were doing all of their subdivision approvals. Hit the developers, they walk out millionaires they need to contribute to the infrastructure that is required.

Look at East Gosford for instance. What a transformation in that area. How many new villas and town houses has council approved over the past 10 years? Some people made a lot of money turning their 3 bedroom homes into 6 villas or townhouses.

Some of that money should have gone straight into Hylton Moore and Baseball Park. Same amenities blocks, a little was spent on drainage but that is it.

For all my knocking of council, it seems everyone is going to be pretty happy this weekend playing on lush fields.

All I'm asking is that plans are in place for further growth.

[curious]

offtheball said:

Council isn't allowed to impose a hefty increase in rates. It needed to be factored in when they were doing all of their subdivision approvals. Hit the developers, they walk out millionaires they need to contribute to the infrastructure that is required.

Developers do get hit & hit hard. New residential subdivisons require a percentage of area be set aside as recreation at the developers cost. Dig deeper into developments in recent years & you will find that has been the case. The problem of not enough sporting fields to go around isn't restricted to the CC region & is in fact a common dilemma caused by centralised population increases in Australian cities & is amplified by the perculiar demographiics & geography of the CC/Gosford region.

[offtheball]

Those recreation areas set aside must also be known as passive recreation areas that council has allowed clubs to use for fitness purposes.

It's all well and good to ask developers to put up a swing set and plant a few trees, that doesn't take the onus off council to plan for an increase in population and the amenities that go with such an increase.

I'm curious curious to what your solution might be?

We are not exactly an inner western suburb of Sydney that is totally built out.

Occasionally land becomes available that could be used for active recreation areas. The short term wind fall these avail sometimes needs to be forgone for the long term good of the population.

We may have a peculiar demographic and geography, but isn't it council's responsibility to be aware of that and act accordingly.

[marinermick]

we also have plenty of flood prone land that cannot be built on

tamworth has a whole green and ovals coridor along the peel river

[offtheball]

marinermick said:

we also have plenty of flood prone land that cannot be built on

tamworth has a whole green and ovals coridor along the peel river

Exactly, bit of thinking outside the square for otherwise useless land.

Councillor Holstein started his whole political career on the flood prone land issue

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

offtheball said:

We are not exactly an inner western suburb of Sydney that is totally built out.

really? the inner west doesn't have the hills and valleys that the central coast has, let alone the creeks and floodplains and gullies etc.

finding 5 or 6 hectares of contiguous land to put fields on is a pretty tough ask - quite simply the place isn't flat enough.

so we might not be built out, but the same problems exist in terms of tight land availability.

and if people want to bag out council for that, most of the land on the flats was subdivided decades ago. that which isn't is largely under some form private title, with council reserves, state forests and national parks making up the rest. short of resuming land, much of the flat land is well off-limits to council.

...oh, and having played on a floodplain at gavenlock for years, i can say that it's fine if we're having a year where you're neither in drought or flood (and those years seem rare) - otherwise you're playing on a claypit or a swamp.

[curious]

I'm curious curious to what your solution might be?

I don't have a magic solution, nor does anyone, but proportioning blame won't get you closer to one either. It's a good start & very good thinking to have a partnership with a local school & if it's a success, more schools can be added to the list as funds are available. The only negative I see in this is the rate payer funds are being poured into state owned land that the council have no control over.

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

curious said:

I'm curious curious to what your solution might be?

I don't have a magic solution, nor does anyone, but proportioning blame won't get you closer to one either. It's a good start & very good thinking to have a partnership with a local school & if it's a success, more schools can be added to the list as funds are available. The only negative I see in this is the rate payer funds are being poured into state owned land that the council have no control over.

in a partnership arrangement, you'd have to imagine that some degree of control (or at least an agreement to permit unimpeded use at agreed times) would be granted, in return for contribution to costs and so on.

and it's cheaper for ratepayers than resumption of land or making land clear and flat where it's presently hilly and wooded (not to mention better for the local environment). win-win, if it works out. fingers crossed, and i hope to hear some updates on here down the track.

[curious]

Just wondering from a long term financial point of view dibo. State owned land that the council will never gain equity in regardless of any ongoing payments. Similar to rental.
But, if the initial outlay is in the range I imagine & the only ongoing cost is maintenance, then it's a no contest & I can see other councils copying the practice.

[Pete]

curious said:

Just wondering from a long term financial point of view dibo. State owned land that the council will never gain equity in regardless of any ongoing payments. Similar to rental.
But, if the initial outlay is in the range I imagine & the only ongoing cost is maintenance, then it's a no contest & I can see other councils copying the practice.

Good point there Curious. But that's the present situation for education land, but may not necessarily be the case in the future.
Schools could close if child population drops, a State Govt. may think of partnership arrangements on ownership of the land to reduce expenditure issues for their Budget, Schools could be privatised, etc.... In any case, the Council having some involvement with the schools would mean they would be in a prime position to initiate negotiations with a State Govt. for any of these type of things happening.

[offtheball]

Possible solutions ...wonderful! Throw in all of the negatives and what ifs and just like council nothing will happen.


Good to see 3.4 million being spent on a bike track at Kincumber. Couple of hundred cyclists are delighted.


Good on Wyong Council for thinking of the future and upgrading Pat Morely, new softball facility as well as 2 junior football fields. All supplied with collected water.

Should have followed the Gosford model and waited 10 years for the area to be built out.

[curious]

I can give you the ultimate solution available in a democracy offtheball. Stand for a seat on the council at the next election then you will be in a position to lobby your ideas.
You seem to want someone to wave a magic wand & have an instant fix. That could be done only if you have a bottomless pit of cash. You don't like the idea of setting up cooperatives with local schools for shared usage of grounds?

[offtheball]

Curious I think using schools is a great idea.

My beef all along has been the council using the drought as an excuse. That takes the onus off them. All I want the council to do is acknowledge there is a problem with the number of sports fields (football in particular) and take this into consideration for future planning.

[mariners4ever]

i was wondering if all council grounds have been re turfed as i turned up at gavenlock last night to found out some grass was there also some new layer at ourimbah

[robc]

mariners4ever said:

i was wondering if all council grounds have been re turfed as i turned up at gavenlock last night to found out some grass was there also some new layer at ourimbah

The only turf that was put down at Gavenlock was on the new turf wicket. Council couldnt lay turf in the worn gaol area coz they couldnt water it .(cough cough) Instead they planted pig weed, paspalum sp? and kyk sp?. A load of top soil would have been good to fill in the hollows.

[jigsaw]

I played at Gavenlock on Saturday and compared to previous years it was like Wembley - give it 4 weeks and it will be back to normal however (like most grounds). Amazes me that on Easter Sunday rugby league were playing on Frost after 3 days of solid rain. Frost supposedly remains on Councils 'closely monitor' list for possible closure, wonder how much damage the bum sniffers did to it? What is it with those curtains they put around the fields - do people really pay to go in and watch 2nd rate players of a second rate game?

[offtheball]

Back to my old hobby horse.

We are about be hit with a 10% rates hike. I read in the local paper the Coast's population is continuing to grow.

Has the council shut up shop and resigned itself to the fact that there is no flat land owned by council available to develop as football fields so we do nothing?

What happens in 20 years time with that philosophy. In my opinion Council needs to buy suitable land when it comes on the market.

Noticed this in the Real Estate Guide this week. Adjacent to Pluim.

www.ccpp.com.au/index.php?action=listingview&listingID=458

Will cost a pretty penny but what is the alternative?