Perth Voice Interactive

THE Cardinals junior football club will move part of its operation to Charles Veryard Reserve in North Perth, following community opposition to plans to redevelop Menzies Park in Mt Hawthorn.

Club president Scott Robinson says the juniors club is growing rapidly, with 500 children now on board, most of them from Vincent.

The club had been keen to redevelop its Menzies Park home with new night training lights, a scoreboard, cricket nets and a bigger oval, but 75 locals signed a protest petition.

The club and Vincent city council came to a compromise and the council will now spend $78,000 upgrading Charles Veryard on Bourke Street, a few blocks from Leederville Oval, with a new fence and floodlights so the Cardinals can move games there two days a week.

Come the mid-year budget the council will consider spending another $320,000 or so for change rooms, storage and a scoreboard.

Mr Robinson fully supports the decision, but some locals still aren’t keen.

The Voice received an anonymous flyer this week complaining, “the rights of residents and ratepayers to use the reserve for their leisure and enjoyment will take a ‘back seat’ to the football club”.

The scaredy cat author is also worried about a “hundred-fold increase in vehicular traffic” and “noise created by hundreds of people in the reserve, cars, sirens, whistles, cheering and jeering players and spectators will permeate into your home and outdoor spaces”.

Mayor John Carey is disappointed the flyer was put out anonymously, as he’s happy to meet with anyone concerned.

He says the flyer is full of blatant errors, including that the park will turn “into a full time football ground,” when the Cardinals will actually only be there two days a week.

“This is someone maliciously trying to stir up unnecessary conflict,” he says.

The mayor says Charles Veryard Reserve is drastically underutilised and it makes sense to share the load between the parks: “This is our second largest sporting field in Vincent that’s being used two days a week.”

by DAVID BELL