Kiama Council is set to push ahead with “Option 4” for the Kiama Sporting Complex after being inundated with feedback from the public over its masterplan for the outdated venue.

As part of the masterplan devised to revamp the site, the Council provided three options for the community to provide feedback from 10 June to 5 August with 177 submissions received and considered in full.

Option three received twice the vote of the other two alternatives.

Director of Strategies and Communities Ed Paterson told The Bugle that Council would combine the strengths of each option with the community feedback to come up with a plan to get final approval early in the new year.

With costs for a full revamp of the Complex expected to be around $100 million, Council will need significant investment from the state and federal governments to bring its vision to life.

“We're going to now go offline and come up with ‘option four’, which is the best of all the elements that we heard back from the community,” Paterson said.

“We will have a full-blown engagement strategy for how we move forward with this and how we try and seek funding because it's certainly not something that Council could do under the current financial situation, nor probably a project we could ever fund ourselves, so we would be relying upon federal and state funding.”

Of the individual submissions to the three initial masterplan options, there was an overwhelming 95% that were against the removal of the skatepark with a common theme that “the current park is one of the best in the area. It is a great facility for all ages and a great community space. It’s a cultural hub for Kiama”.

Paterson said there was much to consider regarding the location.

“I know the consultant [had] ideas of Hindmarsh Park and around Surf Beach,” he said.

“There’s a clear desire to retain a skate park of that size and of that calibre in the LGA and if it’s not where it is then where else does it go?”

Council confirmed it is currently investigating how ‘option four’ can include the community preference for the skate park facility to remain in the current location.

In July, The Bugle highlighted Kiama Netball Association’s calls for urgent repairs to the netball courts at the Kiama Sports Precinct, with two of the seven courts unusable.

A recent by-election promise from the NSW Labor government was for a $1.1 million pledge for a series of sporting improvements around the Kiama state electorate, including $250,000 to repair the netball courts.