Hay Park Cricket Club to miss out on funding for net upgrades as council only promises ‘minor maintenance’

The training nets at the Hay Park Cricket Club will not be receiving a $42,000 upgrade despite early suggestions the City of Bunbury would fund the project, with money allocated in the draft budget.

The city will, however, commit to minor maintenance works and said they completed other upgrades in recent years which meant the suggested $42,000 commitment would be withdrawn.

The current infrastructure is damaged and Hay Park Cricket Club president Aaron Worley said it posed a threat to players and passing drivers.

He said the artificial turf was replaced but refuted the city’s statement some fencing and netting was improved in the 2023-24 financial year.

Those nets are still currently broken and Mr Worley saying the nets “required more than minor repairs” and expressed disappointment they weren’t fixed with the original works.

“I just want to be clear that no repairs to netting were carried out when the artificial turf was laid,” he said.

“We had some of the AstroTurf replaced in 2023 and they did some work on the frames of the nets, but not the actual netting itself.

“The current state of the nets, as you can see in the photos, has been like that for some time.

“Last season I spent half a day patching the holes as best I could to make them safe.”

The club was expecting $42,000 to come their way because it was outlined in the draft budget, but have since been informed only minor works would be completed, subject to the finalised 2025-26 budget.

City of Bunbury chief executive Alan Ferris told the Herald “the city has not committed funding to upgrade the Hay Park cricket nets”.

“We have written to the club to inform them that maintenance works will be undertaken, subject to the upcoming 2025-26 budget,” he said.

“This would be part of the city’s operational maintenance of existing infrastructure.

“Given it is minor maintenance work and depending on estimated costs along with budget considerations, we anticipate maintenance work could be undertaken in the first quarter of the 2025-26 financial year.”

According to Mr Ferris, the city replaced artificial turf and repaired some fencing and netting at the club in the 2023-24 financial year.

He denied the claim the city had pulled out of a $42,000 commitment.

“While there was originally some money put aside in the draft financial plan, based on priorities across the entire budget and the fact that works had already been largely carried out in 2023-24, the project was withdrawn,” he said.

Last month, the city agreed to allocate an additional $115,000 to upgrade the practice nets for Colts Cricket Club at the Bunbury Recreation Ground — which will see the three existing nets replaced with five new ones.

However, a similar deal for Hay Park appears to be off the table.

“It’s great for them to get the work done,” Mr Worley said.

“It’s definitely not Hay Park against Colts, it’s more the city being aware that ours were quite run down and they needed the work done.”

Mr Worley said he hoped the city acted to ensure the nets were made safe for the community.