The plan to spend $650,000 on a sports and recreation hub at Millers Flat was debated at the Teviot Valley Community Board meeting last week.
Teviot Prospects member and Millers Flat resident Pat Garden spoke in the public forum before the meeting asking for support for a report to be tabled later in the meeting.
Mr Garden was at the community board meeting as project lead for the Millers Flat sport and recreation hub steering group, which was asking for the board’s permission, but no money, to construct a sports hub on the Millers Flat recreation reserve.
The project’s estimated cost of $650,000 would come from community funding and grants.
The steering group’s report said it was motivated by the poor condition of two tennis/netball courts on the site.
There was also a war memorial, a playground and an abandoned bowling green and pavilion.
The courts were used at the annual Millers Flat School tournament, which had attracted up to 1000 children along with coaches, teachers and spectators, each August for the past 122 years but they were unsafe and needed to be upgraded.
After discovering it would cost the council $435,000 to upgrade the courts the steering group added a pump track and improved children’s play facilities, bringing the project cost to $660,000.
The proposal presented to the community board showed an artificial turf which would include tennis and pickleball courts, along with provision for netball, hockey and cricket. A petanque court was also included.
Mr Garden said the former bowling club pavilion was excluded from the plan.
Community meetings had shown overwhelming support for the project, which would be funded through community donations and grants, Mr Garden said.
"By undertaking this upgrade we are helping to future-proof the remote township and avoid us become a disused backwater," Mr Garden said.
"It’s a ‘chicken or egg’ opportunity; do we do nothing and shrink, or do we get proactive, propose, do something, survive, and thrive?" the report said.
The village’s only cafe had been closed since the beginning of last winter and was for sale.
The hall and bowling club pavilion were both on the council’s divestment lists in the long term plan.
A camping ground, public toilets, swimming pool — which closed during the winter — and a restored bakehouse museum, open at weekends, were the only reasons to drive across the blue bridge from State Highway 8 into Millers Flat.
Board member Gill Booth said pickleball was extremely noisy and "drove people who lived nearby nuts".
Board member Curtis Pannett and council parks and recreation manager Gordon Bailey both agreed the noise of activity was part of living near reserves.
Teviot councillor Sally Feinerman and Ms Booth had both been approached by Millers Flat residents who had concerns about the scale of the plan.
Two letters had also been received by the board about it but were not tabled.
After debate, the board accepted Mr Bailey’s recommendation to allow the redevelopment of the Millers Flat recreation reserve.
