Wagga Wagga City Council has endorsed a Masterplan which will guide future works at the Wagga Cricket Ground in the city's CBD.
At its Ordinary Meeting on Monday 5 August, Council adopted the Wagga Cricket Ground Masterplan and endorsed a recommendation to pursue future funding opportunities for the continued detailed planning and design of this project.
Manager City Growth and Regional Assets Ben Creighton said the draft Masterplan was on public exhibition for 30 days from 14 June to 14 July 2024, with a total of nine submissions received.
"We want to thank the community for their feedback, as well as all the stakeholders and key user groups who have been part of the ongoing consultation process," Mr Creighton said.
"Council staff have also been working in the background for about 12 to 18 months with local stakeholders on developing the concept.
"Through this input and feedback, we've been able to get an understanding of the broader community's desires and expectations for the future use of that site and their views on what we're potentially proposing for the future."
The Masterplan will serve as a long-term strategic document, guiding future works by ensuring they are completed in line with identified priorities derived from stakeholder and community consultation.
The key themes of the submissions received through the public exhibition period were keeping the velodrome around the outside of the oval, the use of the playing fields, car parking, and shade.
"The removal of the cycling track will allow for the expansion of the footprint of the field, which will then enable a full-sized rectangular field to be part of the precinct," Mr Creighton said.
"The track's nearing the end of its asset life and had previously been identified for removal once the Multisport Cycling Complex at Pomingalarna was completed.
"There are some early works we can start to focus on, such as the development of new cricket nets and improving car parking, but we'll also start to look at building the business cases so we can commence funding for some of the bigger elements."
Initial high level in-house costings of the project estimate the total cost of implementing the masterplan to be in excess of $4.2 million.
Currently, there is no allocated funding for Wagga Cricket Ground projects within Council's Long Term Financial Plan.
