	{"id":111655,"date":"2025-04-11T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=111655"},"modified":"2025-04-09T19:27:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T09:27:39","slug":"candidate-promises-cash-for-sport-upgrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/candidate-promises-cash-for-sport-upgrades\/","title":{"rendered":"Candidate promises cash for sport upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NETBALL courts in Buninyong and hockey facilities at the Prince of Wales Park in Wendouree will receive upgrades if the Coalition wins the 3 May election, according to Liberal candidate for Ballarat Paula Doran.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Doran said she had secured a $600,000 commitment for the netball courts and a promise for the same amount for the hockey facilities at the Gillies Street North reserve.<\/p>\n<p>She said the netball upgrades would include two new courts, lighting, shelters and spectator amenities, while the hockey pledge would help to pay for new female changing rooms.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Buninyong netball courts are a much-loved part of the community and desperately need to be upgraded,&#8221; Ms Doran said.<\/p>\n<p>She said the overhaul would help to ensure that Buninyong people can play and train in a modern and safe facility.<\/p>\n<p>Of the hockey facilities expansion, she said she had had strong feedback from the local community about the need for upgraded hockey facilities.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_111659\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-111659\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-111659\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/04\/DoranSports02_95575-1-rotated.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"1074\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-111659\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">On field: Hockey Ballarat president Jo Shepherd with Liberal candidate for Ballarat Paula Doran and young players Harley Shepherd and Sophie Robert. Photo: EDWINA WILLIAMS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;New female changing rooms will support growing participation in women&#8217;s and girls&#8217; hockey, and also enhance the overall experience for players and spectators.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Officials of the netball and hockey organisations welcomed Ms Doran&#8217;s pledge.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our club, including participants of netball, football and cricket, has outgrown our current facilities and we are in dire need of upgrades across all areas of our ageing infrastructure,&#8221; Buninyong Football Netball Club committee member Chris Cartledge said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is very important for the growth and expansion of our facility so we can cater for all participants.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hockey Ballarat president Jo Shepherd agreed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have almost 800 players aged between six and 70 playing hockey each week in Ballarat on one purpose-built facility at Prince of Wales Park,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The number of participants has at least doubled since the facility was built in 1992 and we continue to squeeze every minute out of every available training and game time.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NETBALL courts in Buninyong and hockey facilities at the Prince of Wales Park in Wendouree will receive upgrades if the Coalition wins the 3 May election, according to Liberal candidate for Ballarat Paula Doran. Ms Doran said she had secured a $600,000 commitment for the netball courts and a promise for the same amount for [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/candidate-promises-cash-for-sport-upgrades\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":111656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-111655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Candidate promises cash for sport upgrades - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sport facility upgrades Ballarat: Coalition pledges $600k for netball &amp; hockey. 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