Draft strategy - City of Parramatta Council

Parramatta Council is reviewing the needs of existing sporting facilities and the need for new sportsgrounds in its local government area. This is needed at the population of the City of Parramatta LGA is slated to nearly double in coming years, and many of these new residents will be young families bringing a particular demand on sporting facilities.

The Council have reviewed the existing council owned grounds and found that more than 50% of them are already fully utilised or over used. They have concluded that at least 13% growth in grounds is needed right now – even before the large population growth. But more importantly, they will then need to nearly double the number of usable sports grounds to meet the projected demand.  

The Council have prepared a document on what they propose to do to address this shortfall and it is now open for public comment. It can be found at

https://participate.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/sportsground-strategy

The document describes the four sportsgrounds in the Epping area. They are West Epping Park, Boronia Park, Somerville Park and Roselea Park. In a document dated 2017, the Community Infrastructure Strategy, Council admitted that each of the four grounds was operating either at “above”, or “well above” capacity. Since then, there have been improvements at each of these grounds, but with the increased population in the area there is no doubt that they continue now, and will continue, post covid, to operate well beyond capacity.

The current document indicates that some improvements in the Epping area are planned, but certainly in the short term they are very limited. There is no plan for a new sportsground in Epping only upgrades to Boronia Park and investigations into putting one full sports field into Fred Spurway reserve, and utilisation of grounds at Karonga School.

The strategy does outline 5 ways they hope to address the overall shortfall:

• Upgrade 26 existing sports grounds
• Improve and increase maintenance of existing grounds
• Install 10 synthetic sports fields
• Deliver 8 new sportsgrounds
• Increase community use of 16 other sportsgrounds not owned by council

So – a mix of better utilisation of existing grounds, more all weather usage, a modest increase in new grounds and gaining access to other grounds (primarily school sports pitches).

Council’s project team are to host a webinar on 21/9/2021, and this would provide an opportunity to find out more or ask any questions. Details are on the above Council document.

If you are concerned that your children and grandchildren, or indeed anyone living in Epping may find it difficult to play sport in the future because of limited facilities, we would urge you to read this document and make a submission to Council. Closing date for submissions is 13/10/2021.