“Purely speculative” is how the mayor of Clarence has described current commentary surrounding the final location of Tasmania’s new AFL’s high-performance centre.
Brendan Blomeley’s comments come after sport reporter Brent Costelloe claimed Kingborough had “won the race” to become the home of the Tasmania Football Club.
“It’s been chosen over Rosny as the preferred site for the Devils’ administration and training facility,” Costelloe wrote on social media.
“Cabinet is expected to tick off on this today with an official announcement tomorrow.”
However, Blomeley says he has not received any communication from the government regarding the project since Rosny was announced as the preferred site.
“All we have been continually told is the government and club preferred Rosny and it was the only site that satisfied the AFL’s criteria, because it was close to a population centre and transport corridors,” he said.
“Be assured, once a decision by government is announced, I will have a great deal more to say.”
Premier Jeremy Rockliff was also tight-lipped on the selected site, only saying confirmation was coming in the “not-too-distant future”.
“As soon as we have [a site] confirmed, we’ll make an announcement,” he said.
Rosny has been a contentious location for the $70 million facility since being first announced, with opposed locals launching a petition that triggered an elector poll on the issue.
The poll found that the majority of locals supported the construction of the AFL facility on the former Rosny Golf Course site.
Labor leader Dean Winter and former mayor of Kingborough said, if true, the outcome was a blow for the eastern shore.
“It’s really disappointing for all of those people in the Clarence area who fought so hard to get the elector poll result up that they got,” he said.
“To get a positive result on any elector poll is very difficult to do in Tasmania and they got it.”
