A brand-new, eight-million-dollar netball facility in Melbourne’s northeast that was officially opened nearly a year ago has still not hosted a single game, because of delays getting a council permit to do landscaping work. The outdoor courts at Yarra Bend Park are the biggest netball facility in the city of Yarra, and demand is there to play on them.
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00:00 Eight competition grade netball courts with lights and a pavilion.
00:06 They've been empty for nearly a year.
00:09 It's a mess.
00:10 Yeah, it really is a bit of a mess.
00:12 Frustrating to say the least.
00:14 This has been sitting here for a year now, almost a year completed, and no one has stepped
00:20 foot on it to play a game of netball.
00:21 So it's just disappointing.
00:23 If it was a football oval, it'd be well and truly used by now.
00:27 The local netball association has more than a thousand members who should be playing here.
00:33 In the meantime, they're playing on just four courts in Richmond.
00:37 We should have a full Saturday competition running from 8 o'clock until 5 o'clock, and
00:41 it should be a completely used facility.
00:44 This is the only eight-court facility in the city of Yarra.
00:47 We get inquiries from new families every week.
00:51 So there are a number of girls and boys who are wanting to play netball and we can't accommodate
00:56 them.
00:57 It's a bit of a pickle.
00:58 What's holding it up is these mounds of dirt.
01:01 The landowner, Parks Victoria, first applied for a landscaping permit from the council
01:06 in May last year.
01:08 It was finally approved last week.
01:11 We've planned and cancelled events on multiple occasions at that site because it's just not
01:17 safe.
01:18 Now the council's approved the permit, Parks Victoria can find a contractor to get started
01:22 on the landscaping work.
01:24 They expect the courts to be open in the next few months.
01:27 In a statement, Yarra Council said at no stage had it delayed the project.
01:32 [BLANK_AUDIO]