Council rejects MP’s figures

By Jim Mynard
CASEY Council has refuted figures that Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan presented to the State Parliament over expenditure on its state of the art Casey Fields sporting facility at Cranbourne.
Mr Donnellan asked in a speech to the parliament how had the council been able to find $30 million for the Springvale Casey Scorpions and potentially the St Kilda Football Club on the Casey Fields complex in Cranbourne but nothing for people north of the highway?
“Why is local money being spent in this way, supporting the St Kilda Football Club, when residents are missing out?” he asked.
Edrington Ward councillor Mick Morland, who with Edrington Ward councillor Brian Hetherton was attacked in Mr Donnellan’s speech, said there were three major inaccuracies in the parliamentary statement.
Cr Morland said the $30 million planned for Casey Fields was for the total development of Casey Fields over 10 years. “The Casey Scorpions use only one of the planned 17 playing fields.
“If the relocation of the St Kilda Football Club to the Fields occurs, it would utilise the same oval as the Scorpions.
“The City of Casey has spent millions of dollars building sporting and recreation facilities for residents in the north of the municipality, ranging from the Casey ARC and the Casey Tennis Centre to the recently constructed ovals at the Narre Warren North Recreation Reserve and soccer pitches at Sweeney Reserve.
“I know he refers to north of the highway but that is an irrelevant boundary in relation to the provision of sporting facilities.”
Mr Donnellan asked in his speech why had the City of Casey promised the Springvale Casey Scorpions 95 poker machines for Casey Fields when, firstly, a council had no authority to make such a promise, and secondly, Cranbourne already had far too many pokies?
Cr Morland said the council could not make such a promise, and had not.
“The Victorian Commission for Gaming Regulation controls approval of electronic gaming machines and had approved 60 machines for Casey Fields.”
He said there were two positives in Mr Donnellan’s speech when he conceded that developing councils faced pressures due to enormous growth.
“And that he sought a review of the current Community Facility Funding program and wanted the government to focus the program on the outer suburbs where there were enormous shortages of quality sporting facilities,” he said.