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Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Spotlight on sports facilities BY DEAN LAWSON
H
orsham municipal leaders are on a mission to establish clear direction on how best to put Horsham’s long-time recreation and sporting needs jigsaw together.
Horsham Rural City Council recreation manager Rob Moir said the time was right to formally establish a plan to encompass and meet the city’s future passive recreation as well as organised sporting needs . He said the council was driven by a desire to provide the best opportunities possible for Horsham people to become healthy and active and interested in what the municipality had to offer. “The council adopted a Sport and Recreation Strategy last year and one of the key parts is to complete surveys of what people want,” he said. “We’ve released the first, which is about asking clubs and recreation groups based in Horsham to complete. Of the 100 clubs we’ve contacted, 20 percent already responded which is a great response. “We will release a separate survey, calling on the community to have their say on sport and recreation facilities, parks, reserves, playgrounds and pub-
lic open space this week.” Mr Moir said the community survey would try to quantify support for a broad range of projects ranging from reopening the Wimmera River in Horsham to water skiing and creating a designated swimming area in Horsham weir pool to developing a shadecovered outdoor splash park at Horsham Aquatic Centre. He said national benchmarking had also identified a gap in playground facilities for children older than 11.
Survey
People will be able to access the community survey on the council website or Facebook page and hard copies will be available from council offices. Mr Moir said he understood that people might consider that the council was covering old ground in asking people to complete more surveys. “Previous surveys identified gaps against existing community expectations and a need for improvements,” he said. “What they haven’t identified well are the needs of people who aren’t participating in any sort of recreational activity. We’re also trying to quantify what people have asked for previously. “What we want to do is bring everything together under one
plan. It is quite exciting.” Mr Moir said sporting club and recreation groups’ survey results would provide the backbone to understanding requirements for existing facilities. It will also identify usergroups and what was needed for a new indoor recreation centre, including establishing a task force in November. The survey would also provide information to update a Horsham City Oval Master Plan and other development projects. Mr Moir, relatively new in the council’s sustainability environment and emergency manager position, said he was looking at the issue with a fresh set of eyes and was determined to get the equation right based on community feeling. “We all have times when we sit around and say ‘wouldn’t it be good if we had this or that’. Well this is the chance to have a say and get the ball rolling,” he said. The development of a new indoor stadium, to meet the needs of various sporting organisations, has long been on the Horsham sporting agenda. But sporting and recreation infrastructure planning also includes Horsham district’s many sporting reserves, parks and public open space.
IN THIS ISSUE • Farmers protest against VFF Read it online: www.theweeklyadvertiser.com.au
22-26 Sept 12-3pm daily
ENTERTAINMENT
Swifts’ Luke Mitchell celebrates with his son Dean, 3, after winning the Horsham District Football League grand final. Swifts overcome underdog status to hand Laharum its first loss for the season in the grand final at Horsham City Oval. Pictured left is Ricky Whitehead with his AFL Victoria medal after being judged best player in the grand final on Saturday. For more on the Swifts’ win, page 51. Pictures: WILLAMY IMAGES
• Students to tour Gallipolli • Child protection appeal
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