Whittlesea council has reneged on its plans to build a pavilion at Epping North’s Prism Park tennis courts and indented parking in Bundoora’s Josef Street.
Councillors voted last month to re-allocate $470,000 included in the budget for the two projects to a new project to improve safety around Epping Views Primary School.
As reported by
Star Weekly, the school has been plagued with traffic and parking problems, with roads around it struggling to cope with the volume of cars being driven to and from the school.
The money will also be used to plan for similar safety works at Mill Park Heights Primary School and Hazel Glen College.
The bid to re-allocate the funding was put forward by south-west ward councillor Lawrie Cox and backed by councillors Stevan Kozmevski, Sam Alessi and Emilia Lisa
Sterjova.
Mayor Kris Pavlidis used her casting vote to push through the motion after the votes were tied.
In his motion, Cr Cox said the pavilion had been included in the budget even though it did not form part of the council’s tennis facilities strategy, while the indented parking in Josef Street had not been completely assessed.
Top Seed Tennis coach Yvonne Fantin, who runs programs at the Shield Street park, said the lack of a pavilion was impacting on her ability to run competitions and tournaments at the courts.
Ms Fantin said the community had long been told a pavilion was in the works.
“There is a need for the pavilion,” she said. “There are no bathroom or water facilities at the courts.
“We can’t have people staying there for a long time and we can’t run tournaments or junior competitions there. People have to go to West Lalor Tennis Club.”
