Friday 02 August 2019
Wellington Shire Council Mayor Alan Hall today announced a $1.64 million redevelopment of facilities at Stephenson Park Recreation Reserve, Sale.
The project will bring the facility to modern standards, including additional change rooms, home and away trainer’s rooms, accessible change facilities, social rooms, kiosk, meeting room, public amenities and extra storage.
Mayor Alan Hall said the redevelopment at Stephenson Park would increase local participation by providing better access to people of all abilities and enable greater participation in sport by women.
“Stephenson Park is one of our most utilised multi-use sporting facilities in Wellington,” he said.
“This upgrade is necessary to bring the Stephenson Park facilities into the 21st century.”
Stephenson Park is the home to Sale City Football Netball Club, Sale Baseball Club, Sale and District Touch Football and Longford Cricket Club who are all strong clubs with good numbers of competitors, including many women.
“These clubs have also seen an increase in female participation and these outdated facilities just aren’t appropriate,” Cr Hall said.
“This project will provide the best possible facilities for everyone in the community.”
Wellington Shire Council is providing $790,000 for the project; Sport and Recreation Victoria $800,000 and Stephenson Park user groups contributing $50,000 thanks to the generosity of the John Leslie Foundation.
An additional $25,000 from both Council and the John Leslie Foundation is also being provided for an electronic scoreboard, with the user groups undertaking the installation works.
Stephenson Park will also benefit from a sporting needs assessment being conducted across Wellington, which will inform Council’s sporting infrastructure plan.
This plan will enable a holistic master plan to be developed for Stephenson Park to ensure current and future player and spectator needs, including traffic management, are accommodated.