For a number of years, the Maribyrnong Park Football Club and the Maribyrnong Park – St Mary’s Cricket Club (hereafter referred to as “the Maribyrnong Park sporting clubs”) have been making representations to Moonee Valley City Council (MVCC) to build a new pavilion on the site of the existing building to meet the needs of two growing clubs, and especially, their women’s and girls’ programs.
While we have had a great deal of positive feedback & support regarding our submissions, we knew that we were one of five submissions and the commercial reality is that MVCC are only able to fund one major project at a time.
Unfortunately, the council recently decided that there was a greater need for a new pavilion at another location prior to a new build or significant renovations at Maribyrnong Park. This decision was made in a closed council meeting. The council has not made public how individual councillors voted, the reasons for their decision, and the information they were provided by council officers before making their decision.
We will however be provided with an additional demountable building providing up to four clean, modern, unisex change rooms to cater for the rapidly growing women’s and junior programs in our sporting community. While this is clearly a disappointment to us all, we must remain positive that our day will come.
This second demountable building is a good outcome in its own right, and will make a huge difference to our women’s, junior girls’, and junior boys’ sport programs. We do not want to lose sight of this fact.
As Presidents, we are both committed to continuing positive and detailed dialogue with our major stakeholders within the council, along with our trusted partners Danny Pearson and Bill Shorten, both of whom both 100% supportive of the Maribyrnong Park Pavilion project.
For those members and supporters who are interested in finding out more about this, we have a more detailed report on the background to this decision, the submissions made by our clubs, and the way we propose to respond to this news and continue looking ahead. This document is linked below and we urge you to read it.
This is not over. Our turn will come. Let us behave as positively as we can to earn that turn when it does come.
Click here for the detailed report: https://bit.ly/3KUpslk