Haddon Stadium upgrade pledge

IT was a case of back to his roots for the Liberal candidate for Buninyong, Andrew Kilmartin, following a recent $125,000 pledge to upgrade the Haddon Stadium.

Mr Kilmartin went to Haddon Primary School which is one of the main users of the space.

“I finished up in 1998 and they built this facility back before I was a student and it’s pretty much in the same conditions I was playing sports in. It’s time for an upgrade. This community’s growing at a rapid pace every year,” he said.

The playing surface inside the complex has aged badly. The floor is uneven and boards warped. There’re also problems with the building’s roof.

Joan Coker is the manager of the Haddon Community Learning Centre, an organisation that uses the space frequently.

“We run some children’s holiday programs and we’ve had issues with the floor,” she said. “It’s very cold here, the flooring makes it seem very cold. We’ve stopped running the program for the moment because of the flooring issue.

Also the roof fell in at one point too, so bits of the celling fell in on one weekend.”

It’s not just local kids that use the space. Sports like basketball, netball, volleyball and badminton are all played at the complex. There’s also a regular market that sets up inside the building, along with other users like the local CFA brigade and a church group.

“It receives a lot of use all year round, throughout holidays and the school term as well,” Mr Kilmartin said.

Golden Plains Shire will match the $125,000, bring the total potential project to $250,000.