Marrickville Council has given in-principle support for a proposal to redevelop parts of Tempe Reserve with PS4 NPL NSW Men’s club Sydney Olympic FC hoping to benefit from this.
The proposal, from Sydney Olympic Football Club, is for a major upgrade of the existing sports fields (including improved drainage and new turf), a new synthetic soccer field replacing the bowling greens, and additional community facility space.
In January 2014, Council called for Tenders to operate the former Jets club house and sportsgrounds at Tempe Reserve, with a view to improving the quality of the fields.
The need to increase the capacity of sportsgrounds to meet both growing demand and accommodate a variety of recreation activities was one of the main recommendations to emerge from Council’s Recreation Needs Research report.
Council’s Facilities Needs Research report (June 2012) also recommended that Marrickville should meet community demand for smaller, neighbourhood-scale meeting rooms.
Tempe Reserve sportsgrounds in particular were identified as having poor drainage and dangerous surfaces by sports users. They were running at about 50% capacity.
The Recreation Needs report found that one of the key issues for Marrickville was the need for improved maintenance of Marrickville’s sportsgrounds.
During the Tender process, Council conducted extensive community engagement, asking residents what they would like Council to take into account when assessing the tenders.
Council will now enter into detailed discussions with Sydney Olympic, key stakeholders and the broader community.
Mayor of Marrickville Mayor Councillor Sam Iskandar said the Tempe Reserve proposal from Sydney Olympic was “well researched and will complement the surrounding active and passive spaces”.
“This is an exciting proposal that is set to benefit not only the existing sports field users, but also attract new users. There are still some issues to resolve, so over the next six months we will be honing the finer details of the proposal together with Sydney Olympic,” Councillor Iskandar said.
The proposal can be found here:
