Hockey surface in the pipeline for Perry Park

The City of Sydney will have a brand-new hockey surface once the planned refurbishment of Alexandria’s Perry Park is completed.

Council motioned at its meeting on 23 November that a “detailed concept plan be prepared and community consultation be undertaken for active recreation facilities at Perry Park, Alexandria including a multi-purpose field, indoor sport facility and associated landscape works.”

City councillor Shayne Mallard said the planned playing surface demonstrated that things had come a long way since his days of playing hockey on grass.

“We played against the old private school and they’d have synthetic grass but usually we played on just turf,” he said.

“It [the new surface] is certainly up there for most games.”

A feasibility study had concluded that a multi-purpose synthetic field was needed along with a refurbishment of the existing basketball facility to include a gym and other enhancements and improvements to the park.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said that the City of Sydney’s Open Space Study and Recreational Needs Study had identified the opportunity to develop Perry Park as an active sports precinct.

Under the upgrade plan the park would become a home ground for both the Glebe and UTS Hockey Clubs, with change rooms and club facilities included in the improvement works.

The City of Sydney Basketball Association currently has a perpetual lease of one-tenth of Perry Park, which contains the Alexandria Basketball Stadium.

by Gareth Narunsky