Despite protests from some members of the community, the Clarence City Council remains committed to building an AFL High Performance Centre on Hobart’s eastern shore.
Mayor Brendan Blomeley confirmed after a Monday night meeting that councillors are still keen to see the $70 million project go ahead at Rosny, spanning Charles Hand Park and part of the old Rosny Parklands golf course.
“We made a decision back on the 11th of December that we would develop a high-performance centre in the city,” Blomeley told Local Radio.
“We’ve put our best foot forward. It is, as I often say, the $70 million high-performance centre in our city will be game-changing.”
Blomeley said it would be a “great pity” to lose the development to Kingborough, the only other municipality vying for it.
“The state government are now doing geotechnical survey works at the golf course, as well as Charles Hand Park, as well as I understand at the Twin Ovals at Kingston,” he said.
“It will deliver economic and social benefits like our city has never seen before. We simply cannot, simply cannot afford to lose the high-performance centre.”
“We are on very tight timeframes here. The plan is to have VFL and VFLW sides training at the high-performance centre by 2026. So we really have to get things moving very quickly.”
The reaffirmed decision comes after council formally acknowledged motions moved by the Save Rosny’s Parks group at a recent public meeting, opposing the council’s decision to build the centre at Rosny Parklands and Charles Hand Park.
The six motions included criticism over poor consultation and calls to protect Charles Hand Memorial Park and Rosny Parklands.
“The message from the 400 present was Rosny’s Parks cannot and must not be used as the home for the AFL’s High Performance Training Centre,” Terry Polglase from Save Rosny’s Parks said prior to Monday’s meeting.
“The AFL will see that our community is united in wanting the HPTC located in Clarence, but under no circumstances, are our two parks to be used.”
