The President is seeking for your support
To all fellow Rovers,
I do hope you are well and coping with the current health crisis. Attached is a letter that was jointly written by Elizabeth O’Neill and myself. Elizabeth is the Executive Officer of Orana. Orana is a charity organisation that helps those in the community with the most need. Her kids play for Rovers and husband Scott Chesworth coaches for Rovers. Hence the connection. Like ourselves Orana, being a volunteer organisation, conduct their business from Sutherland Shire Council buildings.
In the case of the clubhouse at Loftus Oval, the cost to build it was 50% funded by the State Government and then the club and its members funded 50%. Once a building is built on Council land it becomes a Council asset. The benefit of this is that most of the building maintenance is carried out by the Council. In other words, it is a service covered by Council rates along with parks and other recreational facilities. For many years the Council has been trying to get us to lease these buildings and then have us do our own Maintenance.
Back in April delegates from various volunteer organisations attended the Sutherland Shire Council consultation on the proposed new, supposedly compromised, Community Leasing Policy.
This proposed policy was then tabled at a Council meeting in June where it was recommended by Councillors to support it. This policy is now up for public exhibition and comment for the 4 weeks. It will again be tabled at a Council meeting in October (before the next Council is elected) and will probably be adopted unless we speak out against it now.
We believe that Sutherland Shire Council are unfairly redistributing the costs of community facilities onto us, the volunteer organisations who are already working hard for our local community and will now have to fundraise just to pay Council rent, rates, all outgoings, maintenance, and repairs of the inside on the buildings we occupy. This will include plumbers when the toilets block and electricians and all other trades people for repairs or maintenance that may be needed.
Should an organisation be unable to pay this, Council will look to replace your occupation of the building with another group willing and able to pay.
The consultation process is in itself somewhat of a farce as all the questions in the survey have been written in such a way so it would be unreasonable to disagree with them, there are also questions with multiple statements for which you can only give one yes or no answer. Please click on or paste the link https://jointheconversation.sutherlandshire.nsw.gov.au/community-leasing-2021 into your browser and have a look yourself and give feedback should you wish.
We would however strongly encourage you and all your members to contact your local Councillor (contact details are also in the attached letter) and express your concerns at this financial burden being placed unduly onto volunteer and community organisations who already often run on the smell of an oily rag.
Remember the Council elections will be held in December so please reiterate this when raising your concerns with the Councillors and ask them where they stand on this matter.
We already pay Council rates for our homes, and this is also meant to provide community facilities such as the ones we occupy, why are we being charged twice?
Should you wish to contact myself to discuss further, please feel free to phone (contact details in the attached letter also).
From what we have been told we will be paying $4,000.00 plus per annum, and then we get to carry out our own maintenance. Please put some time aside to read the attached letter we have sent to volunteer organisations throughout the Shire. You can follow the links to get confirmation of relevant facts. The crux of it is that I am asking each and every one of you to think about emailing your Councillors to let them know of your dissatisfaction with what they are attempting to do with the volunteer community within The Shire. Loftus Oval is in “D” Ward so you would be looking for the three Councillors in “D” Ward to email. They need to recognise that this is not a user pay situation, because volunteers are givers not users. The Shire boasts the most volunteers per capita of any Council within the Sydney metropolitan area.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Now is the time to act on behalf of all volunteers.
Kind regards
John
John Lane
President
Loftus Yarrawarrah Rovers Football Club
Mob: 0417 238 687