Multi-sports hub gets grant boost

An image of the proposed Dargaville Sportsville complex that has just received $650,000 from the NZ Lotteries Grant Board.

Plans for a multi-sports hub in Dargaville's Memorial Park have moved a step closer thanks to a $650,000 grant from the NZ Lotteries Grant Board.

The Kauri Coast Recreational Facilities Society is behind the "Sportsville" project - designed to bring together 10 sports into one site at Memorial Park.

Kauri Coast Recreational Society chairman Chris Biddles said the Lotteries grant had brought the first stage of the facility "tantilisingly close".

"We are very thankful to the NZ Lotteries Board for this fantastic grant, which now means that well over 90 per cent of the funds required to complete stage one of the facility have been confirmed," Mr Biddles said.

About $2.2 million is needed to complete stage one, which will see six asphalt-surfaced courts for shared tennis and netball use, and a 580sq m facility incorporating four large changing rooms, public toilets, storage facilities for user groups, a canteen/coffee outlet and a tournament control office.

With more than 1600 people from 10 organisations across seven sports poised to benefit from its completion, Mr Biddles said the facility at the height of completion would "provide benefit to all sporting codes currently and potentially using Memorial Park".

The stakeholder sports involved include football, hockey, netball, petanque, rugby, rugby league and tennis.

Mr Biddles said he was particularly pleased with the way these sporting organisations had collectively got in behind the project.

"The significance of the project is massive - one in eight people in the Dargaville and surrounding areas will benefit directly by use of the facility, and indirectly the whole area will benefit," he said.

Mr Biddles said the Lottery Community Facilities Fund committee said the Dargaville application aligned very well with its priorities and funding criteria.

The committee had about $13 million available to distribute between two funding rounds (December 2015 and June 2016).