By Tanya Faulkner
Knoxfield can expect some big changes on the horizon for local sports.
A motion has passed at the recent Knox City Council meeting of Monday 28 August for the installation of a synthetic sporting surface at R.D Egan Lee Reserve.
The movement was originally presented in Council by Cr Lisa Cooper in 2015 when she first came to council, after engaging with its main stakeholders, including the Knox City Football Club, and the Knoxfield Scouts.
Since then, she has advocated for the community to have a master plan endorsed by council, which came about in 2018, including the installation of a synthetic sports surface.
She said the recent decision to approve the tender has been eight and a half years of work, before the community could see the plan come into fruition.
“The clubs were nervous about this decision tonight,” she said when presenting the tender to the council.
The tender requested Knox City Council to approve the allocation of an additional $910,000 from property proceeds to the Egan Lee Reserve Sportsfield Redevelopment project towards the synthetic sports surface, alongside works to the natural pitch and lighting improvements.
Cr Cooper said she was “proud” to be bringing this proposal to council on behalf of the Knoxfield community.
Discussion about the works brought up a number of concerns and positives, including the environmental impacts, usage by the community, and other costs that required allocation by council.
Cr Laukins, while acknowledging the work gone into the tender over the previous eight years, said synthetic surfaces can have a negative impact on the climate, and it would be important for council to balance that out.
“The idea to plant 200 trees in the area will help offset the ‘heat island effect’.
“As a council we need to be offsetting these decisions as much as we can,” she said.
On the opposing side, Cr Dwight said she couldn’t agree with the cost allocation when there are other costs in council that have had to be cut due to budget concerns.
However, Cr Pearce pointed council’s attention back to the value going back to the community, that went beyond the dollar sign.
“It’s not just the dollar cost of the project, but the value that the community will take from the space.
“The synthetic surface will provide up to 75 hours of use per week, where a natural surface only provides up to 25 hours per week, showing an increase of 200%.
“We have a chronic capacity shortage in Knox, and we have to get maximum usage out of the space,” he said.
Finally, Cr Timmers-Leitch acknowledged that the environmental outcome was her concern, however noted that the infill on top of pitch, while usually is rubber, was proposed to be of an organic substance, and slightly better for the environment.
Installing the synthetic surface at the park will provide safe and consistent playing conditions all year round, be low maintenance and durable, adapt the sporting reserve to climatic conditions and encourage community participation in sport.
Knox City Football Club (KCFC) president Dave Merry, who’s club would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the new pitch, said it would work wonders for club morale.
“In recent years, we could have around 32 teams at KCFC playing at Egan Lee Reserve and other additional venues across the municipality, which meant the kids not playing home games didn’t have much affiliation with the club, or the culture we have here.
“Unfortunately, we lost a bunch of people from the club to other clubs in the area where they could be part of the culture,” he said.
Mr Merry said the demographic in Knox has changed in recent years, bringing in more young families and kids wanting to play soccer, and there’s been more of a push to get females into the sport.
“Our bottle neck now is how can we dilute costs and allow for the club to facilitate more members.
“We’ve done up the bathrooms and changing rooms to make them more female friendly – there’s still room for improvement, but they’re better than they were,” he said.
Over the years, the greatest issue being faced by KCFC is pitch allocation and training space.
“In wet weather the current fields would almost be gone in the mud, and parents don’t really want their kids playing in the mud and coming home all dirty.
“The upgrade would allow our teams to train and play during any weather conditions, and would also put us on par with Croydon and Moorabbin who have had their pitches upgraded, so we can attract more players from in and around the area,” he said.
The upgraded pitch would allow players to train safely regardless of weather, and would give KCFC the opportunity to recruit at least 50-80 new players into the club.
Not only would the synthetic grounds be greatly beneficial to KCFC, the wider community and other sporting disciplines in Knox would have use of the pitch, including Knox Park Primary School.
The tender passed at the Knox City Council meeting of 28 August 2023 almost unanimously.
