Community encouraged to have their say on Cowra's sporting future

Council voted to place the draft Sport and Recreation Plan 2021/2022 - 2030/2031 on public exhibition at its Ordinary Council Meeting on October 25.

Councillor Fagan said the draft had been a combination of in-house work and community consultation.

"It covers all of the sporting organisations in town and although most of the content is about the council assets and the council recreation areas, it does actually include other organisations that provide sporting facilities in the town," she said.

"It was well worth any sporting organisation having a look and seeing what we are proposing to provide in the future.

"This is a plan which will be good for us to apply for funding in the future, we need these strategies and these plans to be able to apply for funding for all of these facilities in the future.

"Cowra has beautiful sporting facilities and they're very well maintained, this will actually add to that and plan for the future, but we do need feedback from the community to make it worthwhile."

Cr Peter Wright agreed, saying council needed to be informed if they had missed anything, given the draft included sports not yet catered for in Cowra.

"I note mountain biking idea is mentioned in it as an emerging sport around the nation and we are making provisions for that," he said.

"This ties in with offering tourism and getting visitors to town to undertake different sport and recreational activities.

"So I commended to the public to read it and give us feedback."

READ MORE:

Cowra records one new case, 10 in Bathurst

The business faces of Cowra: Cathy Steward

Holmwood hosts Marvel-ous dress up day

Cr Ray Walsh said while the feedback was important, those reading the draft needed to remember the improvements mentioned could only be done if funding was available.

"It's quite exciting to see the proposed improvements that can be made through sporting facilities, subject I hasten to add, to funding being available," he said.

"I think that needs to be made very clear always to people who might be reading a document like this, that yes those those improvements are subject to funding being available."

Cr Judi Smith said she hoped the draft plan would help revive council's Sports and Recreation Committee.

"There has been good public consultation and some of the proposed actions that Cr Walsh was referencing have actually come from various sporting bodies," she said.

"Things such as catering better for female sporting participants, catering better for those who need special access to enable them to participate fully in sport and recreation.

"Those are really important and they have been acknowledged in this document.

"I think another really good thing about it is that the proposal hopes to, and I hope it will, revitalise the Sport and Recreation Committee, a section 355 committee of council, but has sort of fallen by the wayside a little bit in recent years.

"So I certainly do also hope that all the sporting bodies and all those who are involved in recreation let us know what they think about it."

Send a letter to the editor by filling out the online form below.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: