The recreation reserve was seeking $458,000 in support through the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program for the establishment of new lights on Moon Oval, an application which must be made by the council.
The total cost of the proposed project is $1.1 million, with the recreation reserve bringing almost $400,000 of its own money to the table.
Council officers recommended that the shire support not only a $250,000 funding application to Sport and Recreation VIctoria’s Country Football and Netball Program, but also the LRCI funding application.
Only one of those motions received the support of the seven councillors who attended last week’s meeting, with councillors Tony Marwood and Leanne Pentreath absent.
One of two sticking points was the component of the motion which related to council being responsible for the funding of the new lights if the LRCI funding application was unsuccessful.
Rochester ward's Cr Paul Jarman and Kyabram-Deakin ward's Cr Daniel Mackrell lost the vote 2-5 to accept the recommendation for both funding applications to be supported by the shire.
Mayor Rob Amos, deputy mayor Colleen Gates, former mayor Chrissy Weller, Cr John Zobec and Cr Adrian Weston voted against the recommendation.
Both Rochester Football Netball Club president Justin Cleary and Recreation Reserve Committee of Management chair Brendan Martin were livid with the decision, which was made at last week’s Campaspe Shire Council meeting.
They immediately voiced their extreme disappointment with council’s decision not to support the grant application, with Mr Martin adding that a “strongly worded’’ letter would be directed to the council from the management committee.
While the project is not dead, it is definitely on life support. Council is hoping to develop a policy which will allow projects such as the Moon Oval lighting to be given council support.
The second, and probably major, reason behind council’s decision not to financially support the new lights was that traditionally it has not funded projects on Crown land, which is the situation with Moon Oval.
Council will now wait to develop a policy on funding Crown land projects before giving its support to any funding application for the Rochester project.
“Waiting for them to write a policy that allows them to allocate money to Crown land projects could take 12 months, if not two years,” Mr Martin said.
“We’ve been waiting 15 years for this project. We have almost half the money for the project from the community.
"And, if it got support, we would be digging the holes in two months.
“This is outrageous.”
Mr Martin said council had “shirked its responsibility to bring the lighting at Moon Oval into line with the levels required for a regionally-rated reserve’’.
“We thought we had removed all the roadblocks that council had placed on us to get to a shovel-ready point,” he said.
“We had ticked all their boxes.”
Mr Martin said Moon Oval should have a level of service that met the regionally-rated reserve criteria.
He said at the moment that was not the case.
He said the project had been endorsed as part of the Murray-Darliing Basin funding at a Campaspe Shire Council meeting in 2015.
“After community consultation, they completed work at the tennis courts and upgraded netball lighting. There were two parts to the Moon Oval project — one was netball and the other was Moon Oval,” he said.
“We were the next cab off the rank.”
Mr Martin said the funding ratio for projects like the Moon Oval lights was normally three to one.
“We have met that requirement,” he said.
Rochester Football Netball Club president Justin Cleary said council was hiding behind the fact it had no policy in place to fund a project on Crown land.
"So many of our community organisations are on Crown land. What does this do for their future?“ he said.
“That is rubbish what they have put forward.
“It is wrong and disgusting.”
Mr Cleary said never had there been a more needy time to give a community a lift.
“A lot of the town are living at a field days site and many others are living in caravans in their backyard,” he said.
“There are mental health problems and family violence.
“Never has a community been in a crisis like this. It’s worse than COVID, yet council has found a reason to block this project.”
Mr Cleary said he had just driven down a street which had six caravans in which people were living.
"People need an escape. They can go over to Moon Oval at night. They can take their dogs for a walk and can enjoy evening sport,“ he said.
“It will help to get people outside.
“It is just bringing our town to the standard of every other town in the shire.”
