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13/12/2005 - Fire devastates club rooms (view pictures)
For the second time in four years, the Anderson Park Pavilion has been devastated by fire. In the early hours of the morning on Tuesday, 13th December 2005, the Anderson Park pavilion was gutted by fire. This morning's fire was more intense than the fire of February 2002 making the salvage of any property all but impossible.
A significant number of Club assets have been destroyed and the rebuilding process, with the assistance of Manningham City Council, has already begun.
The Club's Committee of Management urges all members past and present to please assist in the Club in it's time of need. Please contact Steve Hargitay 0408-105-492 to offer whatever assistance you can.
The Club is determined that this set back will not affect season 2006.
Photos of the destruction are included below.
Committee of Management
6/2/2005 - Discussions with Manningham City Council regarding Anderson Park Rent Continue - Discussions with the Manningham City Council are continuing regarding the sudden increase in rental for the Anderson Park pavilion. The rent increase is close to 300% on what it was in 2004.
For those that may be asking what can justify an extraordinary increase in rental, one just needs to look at once again at Manningham City Council policies .
But first before we discuss the specific policy, members need to understand the background to how the Anderson Park pavilion was built and who funded what.
In the late 1970s, a dedicated group of members lobbied the then City of Doncaster and Templestowe to develop Anderson Park for the growing sport of soccer. For many years, the home of Doncaster Rovers Soccer Club's was the area now occupied by the Donvale Football Club. After a few years, the Club was relocated without consultation to the grounds and pavilion used by St Davids Cricket Club. These are the facilities the Club uses for training.
The area formally used by the Club was reallocated to the Donvale Football and Cricket Clubs. These Clubs still use these facilities today.
After a short amount of time, it became obvious that the St Davids Cricket Club pavilion was grossly inadequate and a dedicated group of members commenced the task of lobbying Manningham City Council to develop Anderson Park for Soccer. After a lot of hard work, the pavilion and social club rooms were built and the grounds redeveloped. The Anderson Park pavilion, social rooms and main pitch were opened in 1984.
The arrangements for the building was the City of Doncaster and Templestowe would fund the shower and toilet block and the members would fund the social rooms. Under this agreement, the City of Doncaster and Templestowe would be responsible for maintenance of the shower and toilet block and the Club would pay rental for the use of the facilities. The Club would not pay rental on the social rooms but be responsible for the maintenance.
The original plans for Anderson Park allowed for three soccer pitches. The second pitch was built in the mid 1990s. However, contrary to the original plans, only one pitch was built and was positioned in such a way that made it impossible for the third pitch to be developed. The existing top pitch was originally meant to be approximately 50 to 60 metre further east which would have allowed a third pitch to be built on the western side encompassing the now dangerous pine plantation on Reynolds Roads. The original plans for Anderson Park can still be obtained and viewed.
Once again, the reduction from three to two pitches was done without consultation with the Club.
With this background, we can return to the core issue of the Manningham City Council policy that impacts the Club. The policy states that the Manningham City Council does not recognise member contributions after 20 years has elapsed. 2004 was the 20th anniversary of the Anderson Park pavilion.
Manningham City Council has effectively taken full possession of the building and extinguished any moral claim to the social rooms. As such the Manningham City Council deems that it owns the building fully and charges rental accordingly. To make matters even more difficult for the Club, the Manningham City Council has completely disregarded the $25,000 contribution the Club made to the rebuilding program after the devastating fire of 2001.
If all that is not enough, if the Club improves the facilities in any way - additional change rooms for instance, the value of the facility will be deemed to be higher and the rental will be adjusted accordingly!
What incentive is there for Clubs like ours to contribute to project that improves facilities for the residents of the City of Manningham. There appears to be none under present policy scenario.
29/1/2005 - Donvale Pavilion Refurbishment - For those parents that have been with the Club for a while can remember the bleak, cold and wet nights spent at Donvale Reserve watching our sons and daughters train....... Well things are about to change!
The Manningham City Council has, after years of neglect, finally allocated funds to refurbish Donvale Pavilion. The refurbishment will see a number of changes that will benefit all members. A number of structural alterations have been discussed over the last couple of years but these were subject to adequate funding. Draft plans will be issued to all stakeholders shortly for comment.
The other part of the good news is that Doncaster Rovers Soccer Club will not have to contribute financially to the project. Manningham City Council policy deems the pavilion to be a "multi use" facility. i.e. the pavilion is shared by more than one sport and the clubs are not required to contribute to the project. We believe the Manningham City Council has budgeted $100,000 for the project.
Whilst this is good news in this instance, the policy does discriminate against clubs that have "single use" facilities like Anderson Park. The policy has thrown some doubt over the planned extensions to the Anderson Park change rooms. The Club needs to contribute $20,000 in cash and $30,000 of "in kind" contribution. The Club is struggling to raise these funds particularly after Anderson Park rental was increased by more than 300% to $24,000 per annum.
It is our understanding, the single/ multi use policy was introduced to maximise the use of public facilities by opening up facilities to more than one sport. This is a responsible policy particularly where you have cricket and Australia Rules football clubs that have a relatively small number of teams and participants and are able to share facilities. However, this policy works against sports that have a high and growing participation rate where existing facilities cannot cope with current numbers. Soccer, as a sport is in this category and it continues to grow in popularity.
On more than one occasion, the Club has considered offering Anderson Park to other summer sports in order to have Anderson Park classified as a multi use facility. Each time the notion had to be rejected because the grounds had to be repaired and rested over the summer break.
Doncaster Rovers Soccer Club with its thousand paid members almost 500 players is clearly an anomaly within the context of the multi use policy. The Manningham City Councillors, who are elected by all of us in Manningham, should look into this situation and make adjustments accordingly.