Supporting Sport in Albert-Eden

The City Vision team on Albert-Eden Local Board today laid the groundwork for much-needed investment in sport facilities in Albert-Eden, providing grants to Epsom Girls Grammar, Epsom Normal Primary School and Mount Albert Bowling Club to help develop and enhance their facilities.

This funding comes through implementing our Sport and Active Recreation Facility Plan, which helps the board identify and prioritise opportunities to partner with other organisations such as schools and clubs to help build and improve sports facilities across the Albert-Eden rohe. 

Chair Margi Watson is excited that budgets now allow us to really step up for projects like this. ‘It’s just more bang for buck, we can work with schools and community groups to make the most of our investment and do more than we could alone. We’ve shown how successful working with schools can be with our Summer School Pools Programme, which has been running for three years now. We paid for lifeguards and opened the school pools to the public at Waterview, Auckland Normal Intermediate and Edendale.’

Partnering with EGGS was identified as an opportunity to secure more community access to covered outdoor courts. The $150,000 grant will allow the school to begin work on covering three outdoor courts and to seek funding from other sources towards the project. In return for the Local Board  contribution, the school will partner up and provide community access to the courts outside of school hours.

Member Michelle Thorp knows first-hand the need for more space for hard-court sports in Albert-Eden. ‘We know space for sports like netball and tennis is at a premium in central Auckland, and this project will add three new all-weather courts to the network.’

Michelle Thorp demonstrating the demand for all-weather courts

A $60,000 grant to Epsom Normal Primary School will allow the school to investigate building an indoor multipurpose facility/gym next to the school pool, and to seek further external funding for the project. The Local Board contribution will ensure community access not only to the future indoor facility, but to the school pool, which is not currently available to the public.

Finally, a $60,000 grant to Mount Albert Bowls will make a significant contribution to the funding needed to convert one of the club’s greens at 10 Allendale Road from natural to artificial turf.

These partnership grants accompany ongoing investment in council-owned sports facilities, including implementing the Windmill Park Concept Plan as budgets allow and maintaining and upgrading sports fields, lights and equipment across our rohe.