Media Release

13 April, 2007.

Funding fast-lanes Westport’s new sports complex

The West Coast Development Trust is making a significant contribution to a new sports and leisure centre in Westport in a double header strategy to enhance the town’s quality of life and attract more investment and workers to the area.

The Buller District Council will receive more than $6million towards the project. It is part of the Trust’s focus on developing Major District Initiatives for the economic benefit of the region.

The steering group for the sports and leisure centre, headed by Mayor Martin Sawyers, signed the funding agreement last month.

“The MDI funding is specifically intended for district facilities such as this,” said Trust Chairman Frank Dooley. “It is exciting to see our goal for economic growth is realised in such projects and it is important to stress the project does not impede applications for grants from other groups within the community.”

Mr Sawyers said The West Coast Development Trust has rightly identified that an important part of securing the economic future of the West Coast is to make sure our communities have good quality arts, cultural, sporting and recreational facilities. “Without these facilities we will struggle to attract the investment and skills we require. Without the Trust’s support it would not be possible for our council to build the sport and leisure centre and this is a facility a large city would be proud of.”

McDonald Park has been earmarked for the new centre which will include an 8 lane, 25 metre indoor pool, an indoor sports stadium catering for netball, volleyball, basketball, badminton, squash and indoor soccer, a full sized outdoor hockey pitch with floodlighting and outdoor netball courts. The centre will also house a health and fitness facility, provide social meeting space, have a food and beverage outlet, office and administration areas.

Kathryn Bainbridge, Chair of Buller Arts and Recreation Trust, said the Buller District could only benefit from the Trust’s investment into quality facilities which will meet the districts needs for decades to come.

Maraea Casey, a sports coach and former sport-fit coordinator, goes a step further and says that by providing a multifunctional centre for recreation and health it will create a vibrant, healthier, confident and more positive community. “It will assist our youth of today to become positive contributors within the community as adults in the future,” she said.

The steering committee envisages the facility will attract more sporting events to the region, raising the profile of the Coast and providing opportunities for local sportspeople aspiring to regional and national levels.
“It will also be a great draw card for families looking to relocate to the Coast,” said Martin Sawyers. “This sports and leisure centre will mean our community will have the same quality of facilities as those offered in other areas.”

“It is the sort of sophisticated facility people used to urban living expect. They want to have year-round sporting opportunities and by providing this level of venue, we also improve life here for ourselves. It will provide exceptional facilities in a town of our size, and it will create more sporting opportunities than we are probably aware of at this stage.”

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