Football club, State MP raise fears over Harvey Shire cost contribution plans as lights funding announced

The Harvey-Brunswick-Leschenault Football Club president has warned the Shire of Harvey’s proposed co-contribution model will put the club in peril as it celebrates a major funding win. The State Government contributed $449,907 towards the $1.3 million lighting upgrades at Brunswick Oval, which is set to benefit both the HBL club and the Brunswick Agricultural Society which use the facility. Senior club president Tristan Maslin was excited about the funding, saying the current oval lighting had prevented junior players from Australind playing at the seniors base in Brunswick for four seasons. “It is going to go a long way to having a successful football culture here at Brunswick and at Australind as well, because the players love coming out here with the young kids,” he said. However, the announcement was overshadowed by a Harvey Shire proposal to have the club contribute one-third of future asset improvement and replacement costs for the ground as part of their clubroom lease renewal. Mr Maslin said they were still looking into the proposal but he was unaware of any other community group Statewide that had to contribute the estimated $18,000 per year the club could be asked to set aside. “If we had to contribute one third to this (current) lighting project, we would be up for nearly $700,000,” he said. Club contributions to the lighting upgrades are $97,000, while the Brunswick Agricultural Society has also chipped in $80,000. The Shire of Harvey has contributed $500,000 to the upgrade, with additional funding for pre-project work. Mr Maslin asked the shire for a ‘please explain’ when he heard of the proposal and told officers there was “no way” the club would re-sign the contract with the conditions proposed at the January council meeting. He said the club had “barely broken even” last financial year. “We’ve been working with the shire pretty diligently, closely and successfully with the lighting project and to see something like this sort of get thrown at us when they know how hard we have been working to save for this lighting upgrade, it is a big kick in the guts,” Mr Maslin said. Mr Maslin believed no other sporting organisation in the shire would be able to co-contribute one-third of facility costs if it was implemented on a wider scale. “A lot of them don’t have the ability and capability to raise funds like we do,” he said. Murray-Wellington MLA Robyn Clarke said the shire was asking ratepaying club members to contribute to ratepayer-funded facilities. “I think there is enough State and Federal funding around to fund community spaces like this that the shire are fully aware of and they shouldn’t be asking clubs of a volunteer, not-for-profit nature to be co-contributing when they are already co-contributing to projects and doing the upkeep to those clubs,” she said. She was concerned HBL could be forced to close its doors if the council’s proposal went through. “That would be their legacy, to shut down this club if they force this issue,” Ms Clarke said. Harvey Shire president Paul Gillett said some of the issues raised by HBL were why the lease agreement decision was delayed and the council would not “break a club”. “Not one size is going to fit all clubs — everyone’s got a financial capacity,” he said. “(Co-contributions are) a discussion all councils have got to have to look at with maintaining facilities into the future.” He said any co-contributions could include in-kind payments. Mr Gillett disagreed with Ms Clarke’s claims about funding availability and claimed grassroots sports were being “massively underfunded” despite having the biggest impact. “The (State Government’s community sporting and recreation facilities fund) is well known to be underfunded ... and it has been underfunded for years,” he said. The next council vote on the HBL clubroom lease agreement is scheduled for March 28.