Our local sports clubs and general community groups are the lifeblood of the Horsham region.
In these changing times I believe we need to start considering what the needs of our groups will be in the coming decades and how we can make them better equipped to prosper.
Traditionally community sporting clubs have a physical location or club house which becomes the central meeting and socialising place. It is also where honour boards, trophy cabinets and photographs are proudly displayed.
While some local groups are housed in privately managed buildings, the vast majority occupy Council-owned facilities – and many of those are nowhere near as good as they could be.
Currently there are a large number of buildings maintained by Horsham Rural City Council that are aging in condition and with a number that are underused and vacant for the majority of the week.
Think of a building in Horsham… any building – A place of work, residential home, local hall, church, cafe, community building, primary school, clubrooms.
There are there are plenty of hours in the day, week, month or year where the spaces in these buildings are empty, quiet and lonesome. In many cases the utilities are primed waiting for someone to enter - think about the waste that is occurring.
There is probably no better illustration of this inefficiency in Horsham than buildings occupied by a single user group. Let's imagine a single group uses a hall for eight hours a week during daylight hours for a year. That equals 90% of the time when the building is vacant! And who pays for the upkeep on these buildings – all to service the need of one user group? The answer is the community.
The buildings we all pay for, located a short distance away and used for only 10% of the year are off-limits to the community who effectively own them? It makes little sense.
Space sharing is a reasonable notion that needs no introduction and the times in Horsham are changing, we can no longer support one user group occupying a space that should have fair and equal access to all members of the community.
Allowing all members of the community access to our buildings means we can maintain our shared facilities to the appropriate standard and maximise opportunities for bookings and usage and promote availability and accessibility of the assets to the community.
If we manage shared facilities equitably, affordably and appropriately we can maximise community participation and access.
