Labor pledges $3m for Wallsend's Upper Reserve fields

Transcript

00:00Yeah, which is pretty unique in Newcastle to have that, it feels upright, very necessary.

00:05There are some really well-known problems with this remarkable upper reserve that we're standing

00:12on in Waltham today. Too many lost games, too much time out where sports grounds are just being

00:20closed. But we're here in an area that is rapidly growing for the City of Newcastle and the people

00:28in the western suburbs deserve quality facilities and there are so many sporting clubs using these

00:37nine playing fields that we see here today and the two cricket pitches behind us but can't do so

00:44because of the big wet weather events but also known sort of flooding and water problems in

00:53the area. This is a great project that Council has had on the books for a while but it is a

00:58expensive. It involves cutting slit drains, my understanding 1,500 millimetres apart across the

01:06field and putting ag drains to improve drainage, levelling the field so that it's playable virtually

01:11all the time unless it's actually raining and that will be such a contrast to what happened last year

01:16where, as the Minister said, we lost a whole season of touch footy and we're playing touch

01:21footy here multiple nights a week. It's a really important facility so to improve the drainage,

01:27improve the conditions of the grounds and then the second bit to improve the amenities and the car

01:34parking will be a great step forward for the citizens of Newcastle particularly Wallsend

01:39and Fletcher and all this growth area here and that's a great thing for us.