Delays caused while the Victorian government decided whether to create a stand-alone Sunbury council stalled plans for Goonawarra’s John McMahon Reserve, according to Hume council.
Responding to a budget submission that slammed the council for perceived inaction at the home of the East Sunbury Sporting Group, council’s city infrastructure director, Peter Waite, said a strategy for the reserve was due to go before councillors later this year.
He said a draft plan considered another sports oval and other facilities highlighted by the sporting group, which represents the East Sunbury football, cricket and netball clubs.
But group committee member Sarah Johnston, who started a petition that has more than 125 signatures, said players, spectators and officials had waited long enough for things like a second oval, pavilion, children’s playground and separate clubrooms for functions.
“We just want a look in,’’ she said. “There’s $19.5 million being spent in Craigieburn and you can’t start anything for us?”
Pressure on the reserve’s facilities is expected to grow significantly in coming years, with thousands of houses to be built near the oval on the Melbourne-Lancefield Road.
Ms Johnston said the absence of any facilities in which to raise money had hamstrung the clubs, which have experienced considerable growth.
The football club alone has expanded to include teams at all age levels in the Essendon district league.
“Some of our cricket teams have to play home games at Gladstone Park because the facilities are not here,” she said.
“And running a club, it’s an expensive business. Having nowhere to hold functions is really holding us back.”
The group’s submission states several capital works projects in the council’s 2013 four-year works plan had not come to fruition.
There have been limited contributions for relatively minor upgrades, it said, calling on the council to finish the draft plan, which has been in development for several years.
But Mr Waite said the council had invested heavily in the reserve.
“Council has installed a new scoreboard and a new shelter,” he said. “We’ve also sealed the carpark and marked lines, which make it possible for netballers to train.”
Mr Waite said residents and the reserve’s users would be asked for feedback once the reserve’s new plan was released.
