At Merri-bek Council meeting on 9 August, Council unveiled a draft sports surface policy. This addresses decision making on synthetic turf for sports surfaces in the municipality by including a triple bottom line assessment of the social, environmental and financial factors including integration of applying the precautionary principle.

The draft policy would bring Council into alignment with the Local Government Act 2020 in terms of applying triple bottom line assessment to synthetic turf in public sports fields. This is what we argued strongly for in April 2020 submission to Council on Synthetic Turf and Hosken Reserve.

The draft policy is based on a consultants report commissioned by Council – Merri-bek Sportsgrounds Surface Study by Urban Ethos and Otium – including a detailed but focussed literature review of synthetic turf. It also drew upon the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer’s report on synthetic Turf in Public Spaces, that we reported on recently.

Along with the draft policy, an internal decision making framework tool has been developed to apply to decisions on sports field surfaces.

The draft policy is open for public engagement at Conversations Merri-bek webite: Draft Sports Grounds Surface Policy, until the 11 September 2023.

The Council Officer motion (see below) was slightly amended on the night with 3 extra points:

• Incorporate the allocated weekly hours and actual demand use of the synthetic field at John Fawkner College next to CB Smith Reserve (For some reason the consultants failed to include this in their report, although they included demand/use for Clifton Park and Brunswick High Hockey field.
• Apply the proposed policy to other sports surfaces beyond the definition from the 2012 Open Space Strategy. This expands the policy to a broader sports surfaces scope in Merri-bek.
• Conducts a trial of best-practice, natural turf management practices at a local sports ground in Merri-bek

Climate Action Merribek Convenor, John Englart suggested the first two in public question time at the start of Council meeting and Councillor Conlan indicated he had proposed to include these points in an amendment to the motion. The third point was based on a primary recommendation of the Consultants report.

We think the draft policy as it stands is ground-breaking and positive. But the Draft Policy could also be improved by making the weighting of factors in the decision making framework tool public. Perhaps also a guideline for when the precautionary principle applies should be prepared. Both of these add additional transparency to the policy process.

We would also like to see this policy applied to a wider scope in Merri-bek, including to inform decision making for kindergartens and school playgrounds. Council should also liase and promote this policy with other Councils and the State Government to enhance good governance on decision making for use of synthetic turf in public places throughout Victoria.

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7.1 SPORTSGROUNDS SURFACE STUDY Resolution

That Council:

1. Endorses the Draft Sportsgrounds Surface Policy (Attachment 1) for public
   exhibition from 11 August 2023 until 11 September 2023, with the following
   amendments:
   a) incorporate the allocated weekly hours and actual demand use of the
   synthetic field at John Fawkner College next to CB Smith Reserve jointly
   managed by the school and Council, before releasing the report for public
   exhibition.
   b) Apply the proposed policy to other sports surfaces including lawn bowls,
   tennis, hockey and other synthetic surfaces
2. Notes the background research report “Merri-bek Sportsgrounds Surface
   Study” (Attachment 2) which has provided key evidence to inform the
   Sportsgrounds Surface Policy
3. Conducts a trial of best-practice, natural turf management practices at a local
   sports ground in Merri-bek as part of an upcoming upgrade, which considers
   similar, successful trials of this approach, such as Middle Head Oval in NSW.
   The results of this trial, including preliminary results, to be presented back to
   Council before the August 2024 Council meeting.
   Carried