New field lights burning bright at Harris Park

Member for New England Barnaby Joyce and Interim Administrator Viv May joined representatives of the sporting community and Council staff last Friday evening to officially switch on the new field lighting installed at Harris Park sportsground in Armidale.

The project to install six 25-30m high steel poles and cost effective variable intensity LED luminaires received $190,000 in funding from Sport Australia under the Community Sport Infrastructure Program with Council contribution a further $70K and $90K from developer contributions.

Armidale Regional Council Interim Administrator Viv May said the new lights added to the high quality sporting facilities already available in the Armidale region.

“We have some wonderful sporting facilities that positions us well to attract regional and national sporting events to our region in the future which contributes significantly to our local economy,” said Mr May

“We really are spoilt for choice! A new grandstand at Guyra Rugby League Park, new indoor cricket training facility currently under construction at the Armidale Sportsground and the new lights at Harris Park round-off a great year of investment in our sporting infrastructure.”

Harris Park is well utilised by a number of sporting clubs including athletics, soccer and cricket. The new lighting will enable night training. The lights can be controlled via a mobile phone app, allowing the hours of operations for sport training to be limited to not later than 10pm.

Member for New England, Barnaby Joyce, said the lights were burning bright for development right across the region.

“I fought for this and now we’re delivering for the people of Armidale, providing world-class sports lighting capabilities right here on our doorstep,” Mr Joyce said.

Published on 22 Sep 2020