A leading Waipā sports organisation wants the district council to convert its playing fields to artificial turf.
Details of Te Awamutu Sports Club’s request to the district council are contained in confidential councillor briefing papers released to The News under a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) request.
Brad Webb
But the council’s decision last week to strip $86,480 in sports fields improvements out of its budget because of financial constraints makes the plea to turn parts of Albert Park into artificial turf a long shot and unlikely to even be considered for another five years.
The papers released to The News, sent in a councillors’ weekly mail out, include a Waikato Artificial Turf Study completed by Visitor Solutions who were engaged by Sport Waikato on behalf of Waipā and Hamilton City Council.
The report says Hamilton will soon need three artificial turfs at Marist, Gower and Korikori parks.
Clare St Pierre
In Waipā the need is not as great – it recommends no development “at this time” – but a future location for one is at Tom Voyle Park in partnership with Cambridge High School.
Pirongia’s Clare St Pierre told councillors at an extraordinary Strategic Planning and Policy committee meeting last week she was concerned at the big reduction in sports fields spend.
Community Services manager Brad Ward said while there were still some operational expenses in the budget for the two recently upgraded fields at John Kerkhof Park in Cambridge, there was nothing more planned in the short term.
Staff had been in discussions with clubs to improve fields but that would now be a long term discussion, he said.
The report said artificial turf was “not the only tool in the toolbox” and recommended a mix of field types including soil, sand dressed, sand carpet, hybrid and artificial.
The report’s authors met on site with various sporting organisations and completed 16 sports field visits in Hamilton, Cambridge and Te Awamutu.
Most Waipā sporting clubs perceived they had field quality issues.
“Evidence exists to indicate that both the Waipā and the Hamilton field networks are under stress,” the report found.
- As part of responding to Good Local Media’s complaint to the Ombudsman about Waipā withholding information from The News, the council provided the weekly mailout after reviewing its reasons for doing so.
Rugby players have enjoyed the artificial turf at Auckland’s Macleans college for several seasons. Photo: Teamturf.
