At the council’s August meeting, mayor Christina Holmdahl said the facility would be well utilised, but the available space was owned by Crown Land Services. 

Since the meeting, the council has been “in discussion” the landholders to see if a land lease can be agreed upon. 

“The other thing is, that while the community wants this, and there is support within the council to do it, it would have to be a capital [works] item which wouldn’t come up until the 18/19 budget,” Cr Holmdahl said.  

“It’s not like if we want it we can just suddenly get it. Capital works  are set when we adopt the budget and that wasn’t in (this year’s). There is quite a way to go before something like this happens.”

Cr Holmdahl hopes the paper work is sorted before budget deliberations occur in March to ensure the cost of the court is considered in the next budget.

The calls for the basketball court and hoop came from the Greens Beach Advisory committee who felt the council were overlooking facilities for teenagers. 

“It was strongly suggested, with some community feedback, that a half court basketball court would be a good alternative for that 14 plus group and [the committee] wants it to be incorporated in to the area where the existing child’s play equipment is,” Cr Holmdahl said.

She said the surrounding houses did not have an issue with the land being cleared to allow for the court to be built, despite the council officer’s concerns about land erosion. 

Cr Holmdahl said there are concerns Crown Land will not agree to lease the area and the council is working to find a suitable backup location. 

“It would probably go further on from where the barbecue area is. The concern from the community with that is that a bunch of young kids late into the summer nights being out of view where nobody can see them,” she said. “We’re scratching around to find an area, but there aren’t many areas in Greens Beach that are in public space.”

Cr Holmdahl reiterated the council is trying to make the facility happen.