Fair play review on sports lighting

A REVIEW of the City of Greater Geelong’s Fair Play Strategy will consider if sports lighting should be considered a “standard” item and how significant maintenance costs can be managed.

Cr Kylie Grzybek received unanimous support from her fellow councillors after raising concerns with the significant costs clubs faced to maintain sports lighting at grounds and courts across the community.

The review of the strategy, which guides the support that council provides more than 300 sporting clubs, will focus on lighting which is currently identified as “non-standard” and therefore the responsibility of clubs to maintain and pay usage costs.

Items identified as “standard” in the strategy such as pavilions and playing surfaces, are the responsibility of the council to provide and maintain at a minimal cost to clubs.

Cr Grzybek said benchmarking indicated many other councils’ strategies considered sports lighting a standard item.

“Sports lighting has over the last number of years become a more important item for our clubs as many of them grow and need to train and use their sports field later into the evenings to accommodate more and more people playing sport,” she said in her report to council.

“The cost of maintaining sports lights can be quite significant for some clubs, and particularly if something goes wrong and lighting needs to be replaced or upgraded.”

Councillors agreed to request a strategy review to help them understand the potential benefits and impacts to clubs and to the council if it decided to change the strategy and make lighting a standard item.

Cr Grzybek suggested the review could also consider other aspects of managing the increased sports lighting across Greater Geelong, such as whether the council could request a further warranty when lights were installed as part of the procurement process.

A review of the Fair Play Strategy is expected to come back to the council for consideration in March next year.