Sport in Knysna under discussion

Representatives of Knysna United Rugby Football Club (KURFC) recently met with Knysna Executive Mayor Georlene Woolmarans and Charl Botha (the director for Community Services and Housing) to discuss matters pertaining to the club and its use of municipal facilities at Loerie Park.

The agenda was amended at the last moment to prioritise the current state of sport and recreational facilities in the Greater Knysna area and the presentation of an outline plan for community sports development in the municipal area.

According to Richard Davis, KURFC marketing official, ?Previously there has been criticism that the various sporting codes in Knysna are constantly vying individually for the use of facilities such as Loerie Park and the Hornlee Sports Fields and that the situation has become impossible for the municipality to facilitate and resolve.?

He further explained that the Knysna Sports Forum consisted of representatives from all the sporting codes in Knysna, and had been conducting bi-monthly meetings over a significant number of years, but failed to persuade the municipality that their joint recommendations on facility sharing were worthy of implementation until 2010. According to Davies, their recommendation to council in 2010 was accepted following the upgrading of facilities at Loerie Park for the Soccer World Cup, but never implemented.

Davies further claimed that this recommendation had been buried, and the sporting fraternity in Knysna stated that ?facilities have deteriorated from that point and that management of the sporting programme is flawed. There is no development plan in place and sport and recreation in Knysna, as a result, is suffering.?

According to Davies, prior to the meeting KUFRC executives had conducted exploratory meetings with several key personnel from the other main sporting codes, namely soccer, cricket and hockey, and found that the frustrations experienced since the end of 2010, were shared.

?Numerous attempts to resolve issues previously with the municipality have been deflected and we felt that, as we share many common goals with the other sporting codes, finding resolutions to mutual problems and kick-starting a sports development plan would only happen if we collaborated,? said Shamley Titus, general secretary of Knysna Local Football Association (KLSA). The KLSA represents 84 soccer sides that currently train and play in the Greater Knysna area.

?The KLSA had agreed to pool their thoughts and to formulate a community sports development plan that was straightforward, easy to initiate and drive forward. In this plan they further agreed to share facilities, until medium to longer term facility development programmes could be put into effect, and to work together for the benefit of sport in general to resolve this unacceptable situation,? explained Davies.

He further explained that the representatives from the four sporting codes involved in this collaboration stressed that it was critical that a starting point was established immediately and that they began the process of ?re-building our community recreation programme?.

?There are always too many reasons why it is always too difficult to make a start on a vital programme such as this,? said Basil Manuel, acting chairman of KURFC. ?Now there is a simple and achievable plan on the table with an outline consensus from the main codes within the sporting community. In fact the proposed sharing of the sporting facilities in Knysna is exactly the same as the Sports Forum recommended to council back at the end of 2010,? he said.

Davies said, ?Taking lessons learnt from struggling to drive progress via previous Sports Forum meetings, their proposed development plan recommends a three-tiered structure to manage and resolve issues swiftly.?

According to the proposed development plan, a scheduling committee with members from each of the sporting codes would ensure that matches, fixtures and tournaments are all scheduled correctly. A sporting association committee, again with elected members from each of the sporting codes, would meet regularly to resolve issues and to drive sporting initiatives. Finally, a sports advisory board, comprising respected, commercially oriented and experienced local residents and chaired by a portfolio councilor, would guide council on sporting developments and advise on how best to attract, promote and market local sporting events.

?Sport is a community staple and it is vital that the municipality starts to tap into the abundance of local expertise that is only too willing to play its part in putting Knysna firmly on the sporting map,? said Keith Cretchley, MD of Sport at Backward Point, which has the mandate from the cricket and hockey fraternities in Knysna.

According to Davies, Mayor Wolmarans confirmed that resolving the current issues surrounding sport in Knysna was high on her agenda. He further said that when questioned about the lack of a sporting development plan, Director Botha explained that the Sports Desk was in fact drafting a proposal that would be presented to council once completed. Davies explained that KURFC has a copy of this draft proposal in which Botha committed to revert back to KURFC on the proposals made on behalf of the four main sporting codes in Knysna and on the many specific KURFC issues that had been raised during the meeting.

Davies concluded: ?My concerns now are that a municipal sport and recreational policy is being developed in a vacuum. To my knowledge the community at large and representatives from the various sporting bodies have not been consulted and we may end up with a policy that does not gain any added-value from the years of hard work that many committed individuals and organisations have invested to date via the Sports Forum. Sport is a specialised subject and it might be considered arrogant of the municipality to consider that they have more expertise in this area than certain dedicated sporting bodies.?

A municipal spokesperson offered the following response: ?The Draft Municipal Development Plan has not yet been tabled to council, but will be soon. It will be made public after that and sporting codes may deliver their input before it is adopted finally. We will continue to facilitate sports development in Knysna. However, current infrastructure is over-utilised and a facility such as Loerie Park needs to be accessible to all sporting codes. Our Sports Desk is coordinating the use thereof and this will remain in place as we need to ensure that all codes have equal opportunity to make use of this facility, while we ensure that it is properly maintained.?

A follow-up meeting to continue the dialogue is currently being arranged.

ARTICLE: FRAN KIRSTEN, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD JOURNALIST

Source: The Knysna-Plett Herald

Source: http://showme.co.za/knysna/news/sports-news/sport-in-knysna-under-discussion/

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