Sports facilities: Codes urged to resolve conflict

Sporting codes have been urged to sort out between themselves any conflicts over the use of sports grounds in Oamaru because of overlaps in seasons.

The Waitaki District Council administers the sports grounds, but does not want to impose conditions that may satisfy none of the sporting codes.

The issue has arisen because of an increasing overlap between winter and summer sports.

A debate is going on between athletics and the North Otago Rugby Union over the use of Centennial Park.

North Otago is hosting a Lochore Cup semifinal, which means it needs the grounds this weekend.

That conflicts with the athletics season and the need to prepare the cricket pitch for this season.

The issue came up at the council's corporate services committee meeting this week, when property manager Dougall McIntyre said council staff were trying to defuse the situation which had come about as a result of extended seasons.

The North Otago Athletic Club had recently marked out its running track with lines that cut across the rugby field.

However, rugby required the ground beyond dates historically applied to winter sports, and Sky Television, which wanted to broadcast the semifinal live, did not want extra lines on the ground, which could confuse viewers.

The late rugby season was also causing a delay in preparing the cricket pitch, minimising the time to bring it up to first-class standard, McIntyre said.

Corporate services manager Stephen Halliwell said the current debate involved athletics and rugby.

"They need to work together to resolve the issue, because if we start to create rules, both codes may not like it," he said.