Voter wants better sports fields

 When it comes to the October election Ethan Clark is not too fazed by fluoride, safer speed zones, or vagrants.

It is sports fields that have him worked up. More precisely, he wants to see more of them, and better quality ones which can be used by people throughout the city.

“Right now I feel like the council really couldn’t care less about the state of Hamilton’s sports fields, it’s an issue that is somewhat out of sight and out of mind,” Clark said.

“It’s something which affects me a lot and it needs to be addressed if the council is committed to providing people with the resources to be fit and healthy.”

The number of sports and recreational groups in Hamilton requiring the use of sports fields far outweighs the number of available facilities right now.

The Hamilton City Council is responsible for the operation on 39 sports fields with the facilities to host team sports, but many of these become so damaged over the winter months that they have to be closed for safety reasons.

This results from a combination of poor drainage and overuse.

“The fields become difficult to play on and when it’s muddy and there are big holes in the field the risk of injury increases hugely,” Clark said.

“The more use the fields get the worse their condition becomes, which not only affects winter sports but damages the fields for the summer months.”

Clark is calling on the council to look at developing more sports parks, and increase the amount of money being spent on their design and maintenance.

“I think with future fields there needs to be more thought given to the drainage design, these parks need to be able to handle the Waikato weather over winter,” Clark said.

“Obviously maintaining the fields over summer is a bit harder – if there is a water shortage it is too much to expect the council to irrigate the fields.”

New sports clubs are forming at a rate easily exceeding the development of new parks, and this is putting pressure on schools to allow club teams to use their facilities.

A good example of this is the Waikato’s largest junior football club Hukanui-Rototuna, who in 2012 linked with St Paul’s Collegiate in order to have the necessary fields and facilities for their newly formed senior team.

A Hillcrest resident, 23-year-old Clark is yet to decide on his candidates.

While he gets much of his information about candidates and their policies from online resources and social media, Clark is also planning to attend some public meetings before making his final decision come election time.