With the Otago Cricket Association effectively taking over the current nets at the venue, Edgar Centre manager Blair Crawford said it was important the public continued to have access to cricket facilities and the $30,000 project has been given the green light.
The new cricket net will be located in the back corner at the end of the current nets. Work is expected to be completed by early November.
''It will pretty much just be for the public,'' Crawford said.
''The odd time it will be used for coaching purposes and that.''
Once the lane has been completed, people can just ''ring up, book in and turn up''.
''We've pretty much handed over our nets to Otago cricket because they wanted the space, which we can understand. But we realised that will limit public use and we want the public to use the community centre as much as possible, so that's why we're erecting a new one.''
Crawford said prices would be kept low in encourage use.
The other big news at the Edgar Centre is the lighting is currently being upgrade. LED lights are being installed during the next few weeks at a cost of $220,000.
''We replace the current lights every 18 months to two years but we've let them go for about two and a-half years because we had planned to replace them with LED lights, so they are probably a little bit dimmer than they should be.
''But the new LED lights are going to save us just over 40% in energy for a start, so it will pay itself back in six and a-half years. It is a big saving.''
