Northern Midlands Council votes to save Longford's Fred Davies grandstand

Earlier this month the council said there were 'no plans to demolish it' but the council's November meeting agenda claimed otherwise.

Council's works manager Leigh McCullagh said the grandstand was inspected in July 2016 and found it did not meet safety standards and had high maintenance costs.

"In December 2016 council contracted Leon Lange to develop a master plan for the Longford Recreation Ground," he said.

"Which included the removal of the Fred Davies grandstand and the construction of the new multi-purposes building."

However the master plan was not available for viewing on the council's website until The Examiner asked to see it.

At a meeting on Monday night council voted to go against its Longford master plan to keep the structure and conduct more than $21,000 of work to bring it up to safety standards.

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The Save the Fred Davies Grandstand committee member Neil Tubb said the council were very dubious about the committee's business plan cost estimates.

"At the end of the day they are basically going to pay to make it safe, when we would have saved them that money," he said.

"Personally I'm happy that we've at least saved it.

"If we don't end up the with the result we want, well it's not the end of the world but we'll just have to wait and see."

A structural engineer assessed the building in September and in the report said the committee's business plan was "significantly under-estimated" at $45,600 and was expected to cost about $153,000.

Public consultations will be held to decide if it will be kept as a grandstand or refurbished to hold Longford Football Club memorabilia.

The grandstand is nearly 100 years old and pays homage to icon Mr Davies, who is the last state premiership winning coach for the club.