Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper

Newcastle Herald

Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper speaks about the lack of progress on the new sport and rec centre in the grounds of Morisset Hospital.

Transcript

00:00Greg, could you give us an overview of where we are up to in terms of progressing the plans for the new sports centre here?

00:12Well, we're much more stuck in progress than where I would hope we would be.

00:19But we do have a commitment from the Minister to try and advance this.

00:23I'm working closely now with his office.

00:25We've had the Premier out here, we've had the Minister for Sport, who's also Minister for Land and Property.

00:31So we have agreement there, but there's obviously a lot of problems here as they start to get into the detail.

00:38It's a magnificent site, but for it to be able to do what we want, what the community want,

00:43there's got to be a lot more money available to do basic things such as upgrade the roads,

00:48upgrade water, sewer and electricity.

00:52So we're stuck in that space at the moment.

00:55And we also are working with Hunter Health, the Morissette Hospital Administration,

01:01to make sure that we can bring sport in to start doing some of the early works before they leave sometime in 2027.

01:09What sort of feedback have you had from Health and Sport and Rec regarding progressing the plans?

01:14Well, I'd say health is face-to-face. I have no problem with engagement.

01:20But as an organisation, they're very difficult.

01:24Their interest is almost 100% obviously on delivery of their health services.

01:31On this side, it's mental health services.

01:34They haven't given any real consideration from what I can see to the future of this site being the sport capacity of it,

01:43or for the rest of the site because they're getting ready to leave.

01:46We don't have a master plan for the site.

01:48We don't have the sort of studies that are needed to underpin a master plan,

01:52including upgrading of a heritage study that I think the last one was about 35 years ago.

01:59This is an extraordinarily important heritage site.

02:02It won't all stay, but some of it has to be identified as to whether or not it will stay

02:09and how it can be utilised into the future.

02:12So just looking at where we're at, too, regarding the Sports Centre,

02:17are we still a couple of years away from seeing any meaningful works done?

02:22Yeah, well, look, I'm at a point where I don't want to continue to talk this up and disappoint people

02:28because it becomes increasingly that you take one step forward and two steps back.

02:33So I'm very frustrated, but I know the community are as well.

02:36But it will be at least a couple of years before people are out here on site

02:40being able to use any of the facilities.

02:42There is one bit of good news is that the bowling club that's out here

02:47has been here for many years, that that will continue to operate

02:50and they, I'm sure, will have a good working relationship with the Office of Sport.

02:54But for the other works that are needed to be done,

02:57it's going to be some time before we can actually get equipment on here to do that.

03:03But at the same time, we have to know that the facility can be delivered in a timely manner.

03:09And that does mean we need funding for road upgrades, sewer, water and electricity.

03:16And the broader site, you've obviously got concerns about the lack of a master plan

03:20and the implications that that might have for particularly the heritage buildings.

03:24Yeah, well, this is a large site and it's very difficult to secure at the best of times.

03:30And we actually have operations here at the moment, but we have a lot of unauthorised access to it.

03:36I'm very concerned that what we'll see here is an increase in vandalism out here.

03:40And what's, health of left, sport is no longer here, is not here at that stage.

03:47But the site is very likely to be impacted or come under immediate attack from vandals.

03:55And I'm very concerned about that because unless we have some plan for these heritage buildings

04:01and some use for them, then their future is not looking very good.

04:08And I was

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