Gosford Bowling Club might have another five years of action if the Leagues Club takes up an offer from Central Coast Council for a final lease over the land.
Central Coast Leagues Club manages the bowling club.
Council has offered the leagues club the five-year lease despite also moving to reclassify the bowling club land so it can be sold as part of the Gosford waterfront revitalisation project.
The bowling club figured up front and central at the June 25 meeting of Council.
Two members of the public addressed the administrator at the public forum before the meeting and the club’s future was bound up in three items adopted at the meeting.
These were the lease, the reclassification of the land and the announcement that the Hunter and Central Coast Development Corporation is now in charge of the Gosford waterfront development.
Margaret Ellis, a volunteer with Vision Australia, spoke about the unfairness of the community consultation process for reclassifying the land.
“In April 2021, two petitions were organised gathering over 2,000 signatures and they were handed in to Council but there was no acknowledgement that they were received,” Ellis said.
“Through Council’s online platform Your Voice Our Coast, members responded to the proposal using the interactive map, but when the evaluation was done, the strong community objection to the reclassification wasn’t noted in the final evaluation.”
She said many members of the bowling club and the All Abilities Bowls program spoke against the proposal at a public forum on May 8.
“Consultation is worthless when no-one is listening,” Ellis said.
“(Administrator Rik) Hart and (CEO David) Farmer appear to have already made their minds up long ago,” she said.
She spoke about comments Farmer had made in earlier briefings about the reclassification when he said the only reason the bowling club still existed was because it was on Council land and the leagues club had bailed it out.
Ellis explained that the bowling club had bought two blocks in 1952 and 1953 and in a transaction with Council, land was handed over to extend Grahame Park, a deal which has never been cancelled.
“Council leases the land to the leagues club each year and doesn’t have to spend a cent on upgrading or maintaining the facilities,” Ellis said.
“In return, the community gets a club that is inclusive and supports people of all ages and abilities.
“This club operates five days a week and 52 weeks of the year, whereas many of the sporting facilities on the Coast are only used on the weekend.”
Important programs supporting Council’s own disability and inclusion action plan run out of the club, she said.
The club is doing great work for the community, she said.
Jordan Ashby, the Vision Australia activities co-ordinator for NSW and the ACT, also spoke.
“Council appears to be of the opinion that the present bowling club is under-utilised and should be used for a higher purpose,” Ashby said, using the exact words the Council has used to justify the change.
He said Gosford Bowling Club was presently the biggest bowling club for blind and low-vision people in Australia with vision-impaired bowlers coming from Epping, St Ives and Morisset as well as all parts of the Central Coast to participate.
Special social days attract vision-impaired bowlers from Avalon, Paramatta, Fingal Bay, Muswellbrook, East Maitland and all areas of the Central Coast.
This year Gosford will be hosting the NSW Blind Bowling Championships with players coming from all over NSW.
“They will be staying in our local hotels and eating from our local clubs and restaurants,” Ashby said.
He listed other groups which also use the club: NDIS providers such as Coastlink, Life Without Barriers and Aruma; Down Syndrome men; eight local high schools on a weekly basis and more than 1,000 people from local business and community groups participated in last season’s barefoot bowls.
Gosford has the only green on the Coast that is accessible for non-specialised wheelchairs.
“I implore those who are present today to make a rational decision about this important community facility,” Ashby said.
“Keep this land as community for now and into the future so that the programs currently running can continue as they are.”
As the first item of the Council meeting, after the speeches, Administrator Hart announced that Council had made an offer for a full five-year lease with the Central Coast Leagues Club which would start on December 10 for the bowling club land, 18 Dane Dr Gosford, but he added that the site had been “identified as a strategic opportunity to help secure a more active future for the Gosford CBD that complements the adjoining stadium and waterfront precinct which forms part of the overall Gosford Waterfront Masterplan”.
Merilyn Vale