By Jed Lanyon
Seville residents braved the cold to celebrate the opening of new netball change room facilities on Thursday 20 June.
The new building features two change rooms for home and away teams and for umpires as well as toilet and shower facilities that will be available to the public that utilise the Seville Water Play Park.
The area now features pathways connecting the netball courts to the new change and toilet facility, to the adjacent playground and water park.
Seville Township Group president Derry Aulich said, “It’s amazing to go back through our community development plan and to be able to tick things off.
“These projects have been in the pipeline since 2012.
“For the netball club, it allows them to have genuine home and away change facilities, which they’ve never had.
“We talk about embracing equal standards for males and females… We had genuine change room facilities for the men, while we had our netballers getting changed in their car, if they changed at all.
“It was something that we as members of the community couldn’t look at and say that it’s okay.”
Yarra Ranges Mayor Tony Stevenson said the demand for a new toilet space was realised a couple of years ago when the water park was in high demand during the summer months.
Temporary toilets were placed in the area awaiting the construction of the new facility.
Mr Stevenson was proud to see the work that had gone into the project and said that council had monitored the use of the area to ensure the maximum benefit of any toilet facility that would be placed in the area.
Mr Stevenson recalled that the community was initially hesitant to transform the pool into a water park, but the decision was a resounding success.
And that other nearby council’s had come to visit asking, ‘What is the magic in this place? Why do people love it so much?’
Mr Aulich and Mr Stevenson both said that attention will now turn to project ‘level Seville’, which would see the oval flattened and redeveloped to incorporate a drainage system.
Branded Burgers and Bar provided those in attendance with burgers and chips for the evening.
