Northcote Golf Course to be retained by golfers after Darebin council votes against curfew

Darebin Town Council has rejected a proposal to open up the Northcote Golf Training course to the group after 3pm, meaning golfers will retain comprehensive access to the nine-hole class.

The movement was passed at a council meeting on Monday evening, with 5 councillors voting in favour and 4 voting in opposition to the go to allow golf to be played on the land seven days a week.

In an tackle at the conference, Darebin Mayor Lina Messina explained the final decision as a results for the local community.

“The 3pm curfew modification previous May was to address a briefing only. It was not some thing that was going to be viewed as even further in this chamber,” she explained.

“Option A [to keep the course for golf seven days a week] is a acquire, it is a center floor, it truly is a get for all — and a earn for all is results.”

In the guide up to the meeting, a report by the council’s performing supervisor of recreation and libraries recommended the space be reserved for golfing.

A further proposal was to open the training course to the neighborhood on Sundays, which the report stated would be preferable to opening it right after 3pm. 

It lifted considerations about the time and expenditures of cleaning up litter from the public.

The report mentioned the group presently experienced accessibility to close by Mayer Park and 5.72 hectares of land the council reallocated from the golf study course to public land in May perhaps this yr.

Ruth Liston, an administrator of the on-line group ‘Community to Unlock Northcote Golfing Study course,’ reported the council’s final decision confirmed it had “completely unsuccessful” to pay attention to the group. 

“This deficiency of vision and incapacity to come across a sharing alternative that will work for all people will be the defining failure of this council term,” she explained.

The golf system turned a preferred park for the community when it was shut to golfers during COVID-19 lockdowns and when pandemic limitations intended people today could only socialise outside. 

A turf war was ignited when the golf course reopened and locals released a campaign calling on the council to return the land to the community.

A petition launched in 2020 to continue to keep the space open to the community garnered about 10,000 signatures, when a counter-petition to return the land to golfers was signed by almost as numerous.

The report said that the tenderer ought to lookup for creative methods to activate the space with non-golfing pursuits where by possible.