BMX track, cricket oval and theatre upgrades as part of Warrnambool City Council grants

The city's councillors approved the funding for works along with another $200,000 worth of community projects at the Monday night's meeting including $110,000 for a hall extension for the city's theatre groups to store sets and costumes.

Cr Max Taylor said the new surface for the BMX track would make it far safer and more popular for the community to use.

He said his grandchildren used the BMX track, and the condition it was now in meant they could suffer quite a few cuts and bruises.

The track, which is open to the public to use, is often left muddy and damaged which made it dangerous, slow and not fun to ride, the club said in its application for the funding.

In a bid to keep rabbits off the cricket oval at Jetty Flat, a white picket fence will be built to replace the existing steel pipe fence around the oval.

For the past decade, Russells Creek Cricket Club has spent between four to six hours each week manually filling and levelling rabbit holes and preparing the outfield to make it safe for matches and training.

Other projects approved included $20,000 for a new veranda roof at the Warrnambool Croquet Club and $70,000 for a storage shed for the Dragon Boat Club.

After 20 years of having no formal storage for their award-winning sets, Holiday Actors and the Warrnambool Theatre Group will soon benefit from the extension to Goodwin Hall.

Warrnambool Theatre Group president Ailiche Goddard-Clegg said it was a huge win for theatre in Warrnambool.

"It means that we can come together as two theatre groups who represent people from 12 to over 80 and keep on creating fantastic theatre for the region," she said.

Holiday Actors president Jen Lukeis said the extension would allow the group to create fantastic sets they wanted without being limited by storage space.

"We'll have the ability to create some big sets, we are creating some amazing sets now and this space will allow us to store our costumes safely as well," she said.

Mayor Vicki Jellie said the project would have benefits for the clubs as well as the wider community.

"Our local clubs are often run by volunteers who put in a lot of hard work to make the lives of those around them better, and initiatives like the Small Infrastructure Fund are one way that council can support them," she said.

Cr Ben Blain said the council's small infrastructure fund had a balance of $1.2 million and allowed them to approve projects to try and put something back into the community.

"These projects have the added benefit of offering $430,000 worth of stimulus that council's putting directly into our community in the construction of all these projects," he said.

"This is on top of the the $1.2m of current ongoing projects which have been put forward from previous rounds of funding."

Cr Angie Paspaliaris said it was a credit to previous councillors and council officers that the fund was established because it provided valuable money and a process for getting some of these projects done.

She said the community needed to be aware that anyone could approach councillors or the council itself with ideas for projects at any time throughout the year.

"These things are usually looked at quarterly but can be submitted at any time for consideration," Cr Paspaliaris said.

"If there is something that groups feel that they really need I encourage them to let us know."

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