Sporting committee burnout their concerns
Mr Pedersen said one of the major reasons the field was constantly damaged was because the fence along a major section of the field had been torn down.
The Newcastle Hockey Club has once again suffered a blow when joy riders took to Arbor Park Sports Grounds.
During the latter part of a practice session on Thursday night, three cars entered the grounds and proceeded to perform doughnuts and burnouts across sections of the fields.
One of the members of the hockey club, Craig Pedersen described the incident.
“Although we were standing there and watching, these guys continued to mess about. They just didn’t care!”
Members of the hockey club recognised the culprits, but when they confronted them, they were ignored.
Mr Pedersen said one of the major reasons the field was constantly damaged was because the fence along a major section of the field had been torn down.
“The fence has been down in many sections, and people are using the fields as a short-cut. They’re leaving pathways through our fields,” he continued.
Vandalism is an ongoing concern.
The cricket nets are in a state of disrepair; live electrical wires can be seen hanging from the clubhouse, goal-posts and equipment have been stolen before, and the fields are hardly maintained or watered.
“If the municipality can’t maintain the sports facilities we already have, why are they ready to build new ones? Why don’t they give out contracts to private companies to maintain the grounds? I’m sure sports people would be happier that way,” suggested Mr Pedersen.
The cricketing society of Newcastle has tried over the years to revive the sport in the town, and to improve existing infrastructure.
A cricketing great, Amos Cassimjee, brought to light problems facing cricket in Newcastle.
He lamented that Newcastle’s cricket facilities are falling apart.
“We don’t have people who understand how to maintain the quality of our fields, and because of this, everything is falling away.”
Other sports enthusiasts questioned the wisdom of building Astro-turf facilities, with large sums of the money budgeted for sports and recreation, and not leaving enough to maintain current facilities.
One enthusiast questioned the work done on Paradise C-grounds, “It’s one thing to put a new fence around the Paradise C-grounds, but who’s going to use the field if it’s ridden with holes and a danger to play on?”
While Newcastle once had a thriving community in all sports codes, it is feared that many of those codes are now dying in the town due to the municipality’s lack of enthusiasm in addressing their concerns.
Ward councillor for Arbor Park, Bebsie Cronje, was contacted and addressed the matter.
“Unfortunately I was only informed about the issues at the sports facilities on Thursday, and I have taken a firm resolution to address the concerns of its users.”
Cllr Cronje has since promised to try her best in having the sports facilities restored to their former glory.
She will be attending a community service meeting during the week, which will address some of the major concerns surrounding service delivery as a whole to the sporting community of Newcastle.
“We want to host hockey tournaments in our town, and if we don’t sort this out, we will be losing out, and we can’t have that.”
An official response from the spokesperson of the municipality was not forthcoming at the time of going to print.
