At Tuesday’s meeting, the Meander Valley Council voted to receive the report, but not endorse it. Councillors noted the proposed upgrades and construction to sporting facilities in the town. 

Councillor Deb White moved the motion with three extra recommendations.

Those recommendations were that the council provided costings for ongoing maintenance of existing facilities, inviting the Education Department to provide an overview of future development of the town’s schools, and using the feasibility study to inform development of future recreation facilities in the region. 

The council needs to acquire land near the Alverston Drive complex for the facility to go ahead.

Councillor John Temple moved a motion asking the council to investigate an option to purchase the land adjacent to the complex, which also passed. 

Deloraine Football Club president Shaun Donohue spoke at the meeting and said the club’s current playing facilities were “far from ideal” and urged the council to find a way forward for the project. 

The facility would cost $26 million and would have annual operating costs of $900,000. 

Most councillors agreed the multi-sport facility proposal was too expensive and the whole municipality would have to bear the project’s costs. 

Councillor Tanya King said she appreciated the amount of time the working group had spent on the project proposal, but questioned the direction and the urgency of the endorsing the plan. She said Cr White’s additions to the motion addressed the concerns of the people who had contacted her.  

Councillor Bob Richardson said rates would have to rise by “well over $2000” annually for the precinct to come to fruition and that other parts of the municipality were a “desert” for facilities like those that exist in Deloraine. 

“I look at the facilitates in Deloraine and I say give them what’s in Hadspen and, for that matter, Westbury, and in Bracknell and in Carrick, they’re well off,” he said.

“The facilities [in Westbury] are not up to scratch, and in Hadspen they’re even worse.”