About 150 enraged New Lambton residents met Saturday morning, August 10, to vent their frustrations over a proposal to build a new basketball stadium on Wallarah and Blackley ovals in the Newcastle suburb.
Each of the residents and elected officials who spoke at the meeting insisted that they were not opposed to the project in principle but argued staunchly that the plan to build in New Lambton - effectively at the cost of two community sports ovals - was poorly conceived and undertaken without due community consultation.
Blackley and Wallarah ovals were named the preferred location in 2023 for a $25 million 12-court indoor basketball stadium to replace Newcastle Basketball's ageing and dilapidated facility at Broadmeadow. Still, the plan to build in New Lambton has met resistance from residents, other local sports clubs and parents of students attending New Lambton High School, which rents the council-managed Crown land ovals to use as a playground and sports space for its 1200 students.
The stadium and its car park will take up almost all of the two playing fields if approved.
Detractors say that, while they support the project and Newcastle Basketball's clear need for improved facilities, the loss of green space in the suburbs has become a flashpoint for residents and community sports codes experiencing a boom in participation in the post-COVID years.
A disagreement inside the New Lambton Football Club over the project in April led to a bitter public feud between its senior and junior ranks as the juniors argued that the spillover effect of the loss of Wallarah Oval would overburden limited local sports grounds, facing an influx of new players each year even as local clubs run at or near capacity.
Saturday's meeting was organised by the 'Save our Lambton Ovals' Facebook group, which has more than 400 members online, at which the group's administrator, Jacqui Rosewood, complained that residents were being passed from agency to agency without an answer to their concerns over the project.
"This proposal was announced to the community more than a year ago ... with zero consultation with the local community," Ms Rosewood said in an earlier statement. "People just want to be heard."
"The community has been very clear. Wallarah and Blackley ovals are not the correct location for the basketball stadium."
Several local government election contenders, campaigning ahead of the city's September vote, used the meeting to get on the stump and voice their support for the residents.
"Every time the state government tries to make plans for Newcastle, they get it wrong," Lord Mayoral challenger Ross Kerridge said. "They don't listen."
"A basketball stadium may be a great idea - I think it is a great idea - if it is in the right place and it is what the community wants."
Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery disagreed with the City of Newcastle's assertion in July that New Lambton was the only site that met the criteria for the project and said she had written to surrounding Hunter councils asking if other areas were available but did not indicate if she had received a response.
"We want to see the $25 million spent on basketball," she said, "I want to see that money spent, and I know you do too, but in the right space ... hopefully, we'll get some sort of response."
Newcastle councillor Katrina Wark, who is also opposed to the project going ahead in New Lambton, was the only Ward 3 councillor to attend the meeting. Councillors Charlotte McCabe, who is also challenging incumbent Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes in September, and Jenny Barrie of Ward 2 attended the meeting but did not address the attendees.
Council election candidates Sinead Francis-Coan, running on the Greens ticket, Independent Mark Brooker, and Socialist Alliance Steve O'Brien also voiced support for the residents' cause.
