Please complete the Council survey (takes 2 minutes) and say YES:
https://yoursay.northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au/lighting-installation-mike-pawley-and-frank-gray-ovals
The future growth of our Club and the Manly Bombers depends on access to enough safe, sustainable training grounds.
Right now, Weldon Oval is operating well beyond capacity, with over 1,000 players training each week, including up to 160 senior players on the ground at the same time on busy nights. This creates significant safety and OH&S risks in a game that involves high-speed movement, physical contact and balls in constant motion.
While AFL guidelines recommend a maximum of 25 hours of use per week and no more than seven teams per natural turf field, Weldon Oval caters to over 40 hours of footy each week, with more than 25 teams training and playing on it. Across the Northern Beaches, our seven AFL fields currently support an average of 17 teams per venue, more than double the national guideline. Simply put, our existing facilities are already beyond capacity.
A community consultation survey is about to open on proposed training lights at Mike Pawley/Frank Grey Ovals, which would give us a second dedicated night-time home training ground. The project also includes new pedestrian lighting to the Freshwater Campus car park, improving safety for players, volunteers and families walking to and from training at night.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help solve the training problem our Club and the Northern Beaches AFL community has lived with for years. As AFL NSW/ACT are contributing funding, which Council estimates will cover the cost of the lighting, this project will not be paid for by local residents.
Share with family, friends and neighbours: every voice matters.
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