Hannah Hammoud
After seven years and two million dollars, local clubs have been told that the long-awaited upgrades to Green Gully Reserve will no longer go ahead.
At the council meeting on March 19, a divided Brimbank council eventually voted to scrap the planned sports facilities at the site.
Council said it has determined the project to be both too costly and too complex after it discovered Aboriginal artefacts at the site which could potentially blow the cost estimate of the project from $16,150,000 to $17,700,000.
Over the last four financial years, council has spent more than $2 million on the project. In 2022 council also extended the project timeline by an additional 12 months, with the revised completion date of June 2025.
Councillor Bruce Lancashire attempted to raise an alternate motion to save the project by seeking alternate funding options if required by delaying other projects.
However the decision was ultimately made by mayor Ranka Rasic after a stalemate was reached between councillors. Crs Bruce Lancashire, Maria Kerr, Virginia Tachos, Victoria Borg and Thomas O’Reilly each voted to save the project but were unsuccessful due to the votes of councillors Jasmine Nguyen, Jae Papalia, Thuy Dang, Sam David and Ranka Rasic.
“We have spent $2 million of ratepayers’ money already on this failed project,” said Cr Kerr.
Green Gully Soccer Club general manager Raymond Mamo said the club had been left blindsided by council’s decision.
“We’re extremely disappointed with the outcome. I had no idea that this was even being discussed at the council meeting. As far as I was concerned this was done, this was concluded… it’s already been delayed by over a year,” he said.
“It’s just come out of left field.”
Mr Mamo said the club is struggling to keep up with the growing demand for sport in the municipality.
“For season 2024, we had 1295 expressions of interest for players to come and play at Green Gully soccer club, but we are limited to the number of people we can accept.
“Sport is growing, these days it is really demanding on clubs. We struggle from year to year. This decision is really putting back sports in the western suburbs… there is a lot of work that’s gone into it by previous and current councillors. This is not good news, and for the detriment of the children in the western suburbs. We’re talking about the mental well being of kids and being active and playing sports. The most important part is these kids need to be playing sport.”
