Repeated large increases to lighting costs at community sporting grounds are hurting clubs in a big way — and Kialla Park Recreation Reserve president Paul Uniacke is asking council to push back the latest rise as organisations battle through COVID-19.
Lighting costs have increased each of the past two years from 15 cents per lux per hour to 25 cents, a 58 per cent increase hurting winter sporting codes that can only train at night.
Uniacke said an increase of that size was at any time tough to stomach, but with the added financial strain caused by COVID-19, asked Greater Shepparton City Council at Tuesday night's special meeting for 2020-2021 Draft Budget public submissions that the increase not be made this season.
“All training by a majority of winter sports is done after 5.30 pm — in winter this means using lights,” he said.
“This 58 per cent increase is huge in a normal year, let alone during COVID-19.
“All bookings are usually required in advance, in January or February and so it’s very hard for clubs to budget when there’s an increase of 25 per cent, and there’s no consultation.
“One, two or three per cent would be not as hard to swallow; I request council and councillors considering deferring any lux and all sporting club charges increase this season, pushed back for two years before consulting with user groups if the increase is greater than four per cent.”
Uniacke also called for a more equitable charging scheme that would have clubs using more power charged a higher rate than those that had taken steps to use less.
“When an AFL ground with six light poles is charged at the same rate as a smaller ground with four light poles with both delivering 100 lux, how can the rate still be the same when there’s far less power being used by the smaller ground?" he said.
“I believe Deakin Reserve may be using old halogen style lights whereas Kialla Park is using the new LEDs, this also has a far greater cost, with the LED being one-fifth the cost to use versus the old technology, yet the rates are exactly the same.
“There’s less maintenance on the LEDs, so I’m just not sure how council can put the prices up, but then justify such variances in in the pricing for different grounds.”
Like all submissions made at Tuesday night's meeting, more information will be available Tuesday week when council formally considers all submissions and adopts its 2020-2021 budget.