BY LUCAS BAIRD
Premier Mike Baird’s latest move to ban greyhound racing in New South Wales has sparked concerns over the future of Wentworth Park.
There has been much speculation over plans to privatise the site with land at Harold Park selling for $187 million in 2010.
Mr Baird addressed such allegations in an emphatic Facebook post last week. The post outlined that Wentworth Park is government owned and will not be sold off to developers.
Mr Baird promised to consult the community in future decisions made for the space.
Spaces to Play, an organisation campaigning for more fields for local sporting clubs in the inner west, wants the racing track to be used as a sports field.
Convenor for the organisation, Glenn Burge, said that local sports clubs should write to the City council, the Planning Minister, the Premier and UrbanGrowth NSW to make sure that this area is used to facilitate their needs.
“Everyone agrees it seems, that there is a demonstrable lack of sporting facilities [in the Inner-City],” Mr Burge told City Hub.
“In terms of getting available land, there is not a lot available. Wentworth Park is a jewel in terms of something that is available for the public.”
Mr Burge said that the site is large enough to accomodate multiple sporting facilities and functions.
Mr Burge named Glebe District Hockey Club as one local club that has to travel long distances to be able to play games due to a lack of sporting space.
Club President, Danny O’Brien, told City Hub that their junior teams have to travel to Homebush and Concord to play, while their men’s team often plays on unsuitable grounds at Jubilee Park.
Mr O’Brien said that they had been looking for an area to put a local astroturf field in for the club since 1986. He said that if an opportunity were to arise at Wentworth Park, they would not hesitate to try and get the Council to put a field on that space.
“City Council is fully aware that we have been looking for a ground for some time… We are aware of what’s happening at Wentworth Park so it is just a matter of continuing our inquiries that we always do with City council,” he said.
Greens’ MP for Balmain, Jaime Parker, said that the potential for new sporting grounds at Wentworth Park is a huge positive outcome of the Greyhound racing ban. He said that the inner-city “urgently” needed sports facilities.
“The repurposing of the stadium and racing grounds at Wentworth Park for grassroots community sporting organisations will provide an opportunity to relieve the enormous demand for sporting fields in our community.”
“I’m delighted that we now have an opportunity to help meet the needs of local community clubs. It’s important that this site be transferred to the City of Sydney so they can undertake the care, control and management of this important facility,” Mr Parker said.
Dr Lesley Lynch of the Glebe Society argues that while there is “certainly room for sporting facilities” there is a “need for open space” in the area.
“School kids don’t have anywhere to go,” she said.
The Greens’ candidate for the City of Sydney, Lindsay Johnston said that the land should be retained for Green space.
He said that open space was vital to improving the quality of life in Sydney and should be used to promote healthy lifestyles for people who live in the City.
“The preservation of, and in this case the reopening to the public of urban open space is paramount to improving quality of life for Sydney’s people. The City needs more recreational open space not less.”
The Labor Party and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers have come out against the racing ban. It is also believed the ban has caused division amongst Nationals politicians.
Labor leader Luke Foley said that he did not think it was fair to crush an industry with so many jobs.
The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party said that the ban would destroy the livelihood of many rural owners, trainers, breeders, and claimed that the Nationals were “in bed with the Greens”.
This has made Mr Burge somewhat cynical towards the possibility that the Wentworth Park will have free land come July 1 2017.
“The government has indicated that will be the case, however, I probably think that there is a fair way to run in terms of getting it through Parliament,” he said.
Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi described Labor’s position as political opportunism.
“How Luke Foley can oppose the shutdown of greyhound racing after reading the details of the tens of thousands of dogs killed for not being fast enough, the live baiting and the horrific number of deaths on tracks is beyond me,” Ms Faruqi said in a statement.
The Premier has said that the bill to ban Greyhound racing will be introduced at the next sitting session of the NSW parliament which begins on August 2.
