The site of the cricket centre is the final piece in Moyne Shire’s Southcombe Park Masterplan and has been a sticking point for some of the park’s stakeholders.

At Tuesday night’s council meeting, Moyne Shire councillors endorsed a site for the cricket training facility within the Southcombe Park Caravan Park grounds adjacent to the existing netball courts.

The shire’s physical services director Trev Greenberger said the key user groups – Port Fairy Cricket Club, the Port Fairy Folk Festival committee, and the Southcombe Park Caravan Park operators – had given their tacit approval for the proposed location, but council officers would need to formally negotiate that with them.

“We would hope to have an agreement early next week,” Mr Greenberger said.

“Based on previous conversations, I’m confident everyone will be happy with this location.”

At last month’s council meeting, Moyne Shire councillors signed off on the masterplan except for the location of the cricket centre.

At the urging of councillor Mick Wolfe, the council gave chief executive David Madden one month to explore any potential issues around a proposed location for the cricket centre within the caravan park grounds.

However, that location would have overtaken five powered caravan sites, which caravan park representatives estimated would result in about $13,000 in lost revenue annually.

At the eleventh hour, the site endorsed by the council on Tuesday night was suggested.

The new location would take up about six camp sites that are presently unused because of vegetation. 

Cr Wolfe said ideally it would have been good to sign-off on the cricket centre’s location at Tuesday night’s meeting but he said he hoped an agreement would be reached next week.

“I’ve been speaking to the cricket club and they’re happy that progress is occurring,” he said.

“They want it done as soon as possible – they want it up for training this year.”

Mr Greenberger said that once the cricket club received the appropriate approvals, the shed could be “delivered within a six week period and if the planets align, by the start of September they should have an indoor facility to train in”.