The increased rainfall experienced over Autumn and expected rain coming into the Winter months has sparked Dubbo Regional Council (DRC) staff to take extra measures to preserve the high standard playing fields across the local government area (LGA).
DRC Manager of Recreation and Open Space Ian McAlister said Council works hard to balance the requirements of many sporting organisations and the conditions of the fields. “Council is dedicated and passionate about providing quality playing fields for our sports. We are also committed to working closely with sporting clubs to try and allow competition to proceed during these continuing wet times,” said Mr McAlister.
“Council will be liaising with sporting clubs to implement strategies such as covering wickets, reworking draws to spread games across fields and relocating games to other venues to minimise damage to the sporting assets while enabling local sporting competitions to continue. Unfortunately if sporting ovals are significantly damaged early in the season, the grass will not grow during the winter months, resulting in bare grass patches, uneven surfaces and overall poor quality playing fields for the remainder of the season. Additionally Council only has a limited sporting maintenance budget that does not accommodate major rectification work to be carried out as a result of damage caused by sporting groups opting to use wet, soft and muddy sporting ovals,” he said.
Each time a wet weather event occurs, DRC staff contact affected sporting clubs and work diligently with them to accommodate their sporting needs, but often it’s an inevitable that games, and matches have to be cancelled due to inclement weather out of Council’s control.
DRC appreciates the co-operation of sporting organisations during these times.
