Parkland lost to sportsfield

Louisa rust

A group of disgruntled Primbee residents believe they are losing their parkland after what they initially thought was a car park upgrade tuned out to be a bigger project involving the construction of a new sports field.

The residents are angry there was no community consultation for the project aside from a Wollongong Council notification of a car park upgrade delivered to 11 nearby houses, which they believe did not accurately describe the works.

Wetherall Park at Primbee is divided in the middle by a soccer field, with open parkland at either end.

As part of the $220,000 car park upgrades, Wollongong Council planned to turn what is now open parkland at one end into another soccer field with a 3.6 metre fence at either end, 1.4 metre surrounding fence and new car park.

However, the council has since dropped the 1.4 metre surrounding fence from the plans.

Shirley Shead, a local resident and member of Illawarra Residents Against Toxic Environments (IRATE) said the residents were concerned about losing access to the park as a result of the new soccer field, and the lack of community consultation.

She said many community members were sceptical about the council’s decision to drop the surrounding fence from the plans.

“When the original soccer field was put in it wasn’t to be fenced off but then it was later on,” she said.

“We’ll just have to wait and see. This is just the thin edge of the wedge – how long till they take the front end of the park? It’s a matter of taking public land.”

However Wollongong Council’s city works manager south, Alan Davis, said public consultation was undertaken with “directly affected residents” through public notices on the council’s internet site and the letter box drop, which he said was done as procedure with all council’s works projects.

Mr Davis said council had decided to remove the surrounding fence, “allowing the local community full access to the park.”

He said while the soccer club would be using the new field for training, there were no current licences or lease agreements between Port Kembla Soccer Club and the council allowing it exclusive use of the area under construction.