Pay to play anger

Shane Walsh has been a driving force in a volunteer-led transformation of the Adelong Showground from a run-down facility into a showpiece venue. He can’t believe the council is now imposing new charges on community sporting groups to use the facility.

A new council charge on sporting groups using public grounds has the usually good-natured Shane Walsh, who runs Adelong Touch, spitting chips.

The new $500 charge introduced by Snowy Valleys Council earlier this year applies to all sporting groups using council-owned grounds, such as the Memorial Park (Batlow), Adelong Showground, Miles Franklin Park (Talbingo) and Tumut’s Jarrah Oval, Riverglade Oval, Elm Drive Hockey Fields and Bull Paddock.

Adelong’s summer footy competition is the only one left in the region, after both Tumut tag and Gundagai Touch folded.

It attracts about 100 players from throughout the area to the Adelong Showground and Mr Walsh said it had played a small but important role in providing some normality for people after a tough couple of years of bushfires and then a pandemic.

“A lot of our blokes are from Batlow, Yaven Creek and those areas that really copped it during the fires,” Mr Walsh said. “We’re not a big competition by any means. There’s eight teams. It’s always been more of a social thing.”

For Mr Walsh, who’s been a driving force in organising a volunteer-led revival of the Showground facilities over the past two years, the new impost is a particularly bitter pill to swallow.

There’s been a swathe of improvements at the showground, from a picket fence to significant upgrades on the old pavilion, the bar and more, as well as work to create a new junior rugby league ground, with much of the work done by volunteers.

“It feels like we’ve done all this work and now that it looks a million bucks, the council is trying to cash in on it,” Mr Walsh said. “I know they have financial problems there, but why do we pay rates?

“It just doesn’t seem right to charge community sporting organisations to use a public facility.”

He points to the inequity of swimming pools, which are free to use, despite costs such as lifeguards making them a far more expensive ticket item to run.

He’s also unhappy about the lack of consultation on the new charges with sporting groups.

“The first we knew of it was the $500 invoice we received,” he said. “It’s just a poor way to go about things if you ask me.”

The new charge on all sporting clubs using council’s sporting grounds and parks came as part of the harmonisation of charges across the former Tumbarumba and Tumut Shires. In deciding the fee, the council opted to set a flat $500 impost for all clubs.

Mr Walsh has written to the council asking that the fee be waived, but was knocked back by council staff and the manager responsible.

The incumbent Snowy Valleys mayor James Hayes conceded the council perhaps didn’t understand the full implications of the new charge when it was implemented.

“I don’t think we realised the implications of it at the time,” he said. “It’s hard to pick up everything.

“This is an organisation that post-fires helped families get back together. It’s about mental health for families. That committee does pretty much everything for the showground – obviously the fee shouldn’t apply in this case.

“I’d like to think the new council will be prepared to look at it in the new year.”

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