Waipā District Council secures land for sports fields in Cambridge

Cambridge Cricket Association president Simon Dodds (left) and community services manager Brad Ward.

It is getting sporty in the Waipā District as the local council secures 6.6 hectares of land in west Cambridge to use for an active recreation area.

The purchased land in Grasslands Drive is set to include a new cricket pitch and oval as well as two new winter sports grounds.

The new sports fields will be located in the same area as a new urban development including 2500 houses, the neighbourhood destination playground, the Ryman Retirement Village, a new primary school and shops, which the council recently also bought land for.

Some of the recently-purchased land at 397 Grasslands Drive will also be used for roads and stormwater drainage.

The council says the land purchase was not new and had been planned to support Cambridge’s growth. Group manager for growth and regulatory services Wayne Allan says the newly-purchased land was recognised in the council’s Long Term Plan.

“Green space is hugely important... Specifically, this land has been tagged for sports fields because Council’s community services team has identified a shortage of sports fields in Cambridge, particularly for winter codes.”

However, the land purchase is just the first step - the full development of the sports fields is at least three years away.

Funding for the actual development will need to be budgeted as part of the council’s next 10-Year Plan. The council says the price paid for the land is commercially sensitive and won’t be disclosed.

Meanwhile, the council is about to begin a review of sport field leases to help tackle a shortage of sport parks in the district and kick off further developments.

The review will be undertaken over the next nine months and will be reported back to Waipā District Council and local Community Boards next year.

The review was triggered by a previous Waipā-wide review in 2020 which identified a shortage of sport parks, largely in Cambridge, with rugby and football hardest hit.

The council says that Cambridge rugby players need access to sports parks for an extra 17 hours per week, and footballers need an extra 13 hours a week, to meet existing demand. This shortage of available hours is projected to increase to a combined 56 hours per week by 2038 unless something changes.

Community services manager Brad Ward says the council knows the sports park shortage was not acceptable for a growing district that prides itself on a great lifestyle.

“We need to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of how sport parks across the district are being managed. We recognise there’s an issue and we’re doing something about it.”

Waipā District Council owns 17 sports parks, with 13 of them leased to 14 specific clubs. Each sports park is largely managed individually, rather than as part of a wider network.

Ward says: “There’s a real desire to provide the very best facilities we can. We all want the same thing, so it’s a case of working together to come up with the best solutions.”

The council has already budgeted $2.7 million over 10 years for sports parks.