VAFA Premier B club De La Salle has rallied behind a petition calling for Stonnington Council to upgrade the club\u2019s home ground, Waverley Oval, to end discrimination.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The petition, made by Stonnington Council Watch president, Dean Hurlston, calls for new changerooms, toilets, social spaces, and upgraded lighting to make the precinct \u201csafe\u201d and \u201cusable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old facility is used by De La Salle Amateur Football Club, De La Salle College, Korowa Girls School, GSV and ACC Sport, East Malvern Junior Cricket Club and the German Shepherd Dog School.<\/p>\n
The petition on change.org said \u201cthe facilities are non-compliant, DDA non-compliant, have no gender-neutral change rooms, are unsafe for oval users, are unclean, unkept, and unacceptable for any community sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
De La Salle, established in 1955, is currently using<\/a> the Malvern East facility for their footy season. <\/p>\n The club\u2019s president Phil Proy said the changerooms deserve an upgrade. <\/p>\n \u201cBasically, they are very outdated, they were last updated in 1996,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd since then, obviously sport has come a long way and we have also got men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams. <\/p>\n \u201cWe just want to make sure we got the right facilities to suit this new environment we\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n Proy said the ground lighting also needed improving and recommended the inclusion of the clubrooms in the upgrade plans.<\/p>\n De La Salle is hoping to advance conversations with council now that the petition has reached more than 1000 signatures.<\/p>\n Council Watch Victoria vice-president Dean Hurlston explained why he made the petition. <\/p>\n \u201cBecause I heard that De La Salle were having trouble with council,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI have seen council spending 60m on a netball stadium and other sports whilst these guys have been asking, for years, just to have their facilities brought up to a safe, reasonable, clean, hygienic standard and to give access to girls, who can\u2019t play without using the boys changerooms, it\u2019s nuts. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen I heard they were using a sheet to actually allow people of different sexes to change, I thought that is disgusting, that is not what should be happening.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that hard for council to spend a bit of money.\u201d<\/p>\n Hurlston said it was encouraging that council were starting to take action on the facility. <\/p>\n See the petition here<\/a>. <\/p>\n Stonnington Council were contacted for comment. <\/p>\n Originally published as De La Salle join calls for Stonnington Council to upgrade Waverley Oval changerooms<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n