Hindmarsh Shire Council Expresses Disappointment over Sports Funding

Published on 29 January 2020

In the wake of recent news reports about the Australian Government’s 2018 Community Sport Infrastructure Program, Hindmarsh Shire Council has expressed its disappointment in the way funding has been allocated through the program.

Council applied for funding to construct a new grandstand at Davis Park, Nhill to replace the existing structure that is no longer fit for purpose, has been declared unsafe and is to be soon demolished.

Hindmarsh Shire Council Mayor, Cr Rob Gersch said “Council applied for funding of $471,803 through the Community Sport Infrastructure Program in September 2018 and was advised on 26 April 2019 that the application was not successful. It was very disappointing to receive that news as we believed it to be a very strong submission”.

Cr Gersch said “Council allocated $50,000 as a cash contribution and over $40,000 of in-kind support for the $562,653 project that was going to see the construction of a new all-ability accessible grandstand capable of seating approximately 200 people that included storage facilities underneath and an all-abilities DDA compliant bathroom”.

“According to correspondence received from Sports Australia advising Council that our application was unsuccessful, there were more than 2,000 applications with funding requests of $396M. Council was told at the time that due to the high number of applications Sport Australia was not able to provide any individual feedback on unsuccessful applications” added Cr Gersch.

The ABC has now released a list of the scores of unsuccessful applications that shows Hindmarsh Shire Council’s application scored 84 out of a possible 100. This places the application in the upper eligibility status but it was subsequently rejected for funding.

Cr Gersch added “Recent revelations about the Community Sports Infrastructure Program are very disappointing as we have always believed that applications are assessed and awarded based on merit, but it appears as though this is obviously not the case”.

“It will be very interesting to see the outcomes of the latest events and what, if any, impact these outcomes will have on future applications for the Davis Park project”, said Cr Gersch.


Greg Wood
Chief Executive Officer

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