This week, Council moved to provide Eastern Park Football and Cricket Club located in Dwight Reserve and Virginia United Soccer Club with toilet facilities to address a need within their own grounds.

The temporary toilet block will provide enclosed individual cubicles for each toilet, providing unisex facilities and includes a dedicated accessible facility.

This is much-welcomed news for Virginia United Soccer Club, who currently make use of neighbouring toilet facilities on training nights. Similarly, Dwight Reserve requires upgrades to its original 1960s clubrooms.

Both clubs are identified in Council’s Sports Facility Strategy as needing upgrades and are pivotal in catering to the growing sporting community.

Council is actively progressing concept plans to upgrade the changerooms at Dwight Reserve in Elizabeth Park and has recently submitted a grant application to undertake construction. If successful, the project will be considered for the 2024/25 budget.

Virginia United Soccer Club is currently using facilities at Virginia Primary School but has had to expand its playing activities to Virginia Oval to accommodate the club’s growth. Virginia Oval requires a comprehensive master plan for the Old Port Wakefield Road site due to its multi-use nature, accommodating netball, football, cricket, tennis and the adjoining local primary school.

Mayor Glenn Docherty said the impact of residential growth and Playford’s strong sporting culture, which is seeing increased female participation across a number of sports, necessitates the need to lift facilities to support increasing demand.

“It’s great to see our clubs growing, but the challenge is ensuring that facilities keep pace with the demand,” said Mayor Docherty.

“These temporary solutions help address the needs of the club members until we begin the necessary upgrades on these highly utilised facilities.”

Council's decision to purchase, rather than hire the temporary toilet facilities allows for flexibility and relocation to other sites after the completion of the upgrades to address other short-term needs across the city.

It is anticipated that the temporary toilets will be installed as close to the start of the 2024 winter sports season as possible.

To view City of Playford’s Sports Facilities Strategy please visit Sports-Facility-Strategy-2023.pdf (playford.sa.gov.au)