The HISC is the replacement for the aging Newcastle Basketball Centre and will secure the long-term future of indoor sport in the region. Beyond its sporting benefits, the project plays a key role in advancing the Broadmeadow Place Strategy, by paving the way for essential new housing and urban renewal in the area.
It will support a range of sports including basketball, volleyball, badminton, netball, futsal, and pickleball. The facility is designed to be fully accessible and inclusive, ensuring people of all ages and abilities can be physically and socially active in a community atmosphere.

I wish to lodge a strong objection to the Hunter Indoor Sports Centre proposal on Turton Rd, New Lambton.
My family do not have any affiliation with basketball and we do not live in an area affected by the proposal. Nor do our children attend Lambton High School (LHS). However, we have experienced first hand the terrible traffic congestion in and around the proposed development site whenever there is an event on at McDonald Jones Stadium (MJS). I cannot imagine the emotional impact on the surrounding residents who are so affected by this situation almost every weekend.

My son plays hockey at the International Hockey Centre on Turton Rd, New Lambton. It adjoins the MJS and both venues are immediately opposite the three ovals under application to be developed. The median strip along Turton Rd is fenced to prevent people walking across this 4 lane road which is a major artery in this area. There is a set of pedestrian lights opposite the ovals to allow pedestrians & cyclists to cross Turton Rd safely. These pedestrian lights cause major disruption to the traffic flow in peak periods, but they are essential as there is a footpath/cycleway that runs for many kilometres, including adjoining the ovals under application.

We have, on a number of occasions, been severely hampered by traffic chaos when trying to access the hockey centre for my son’s games. Usually we drive through Lambton onto Young Rd (fronting LHS), turn right onto Turton Rd at the traffic lights and then left into the hockey centre. At any time when there is an event at MJS, this (and many other routes) are impassable. Roads are closed, residential streets are completely parked out, pedestrians walk on the roads where there are no footpaths (and often poor street lighting), vehicles double park to let passengers alight, and drivers are slowing all traffic down as they crawl along looking for an available parking space.

MJS provides a fraction of the parking required for the tens of thousands of patrons that attend each of their events. We find ourselves turning around, retracing our steps, heading back west and north and then queuing to access Griffiths Rd. Once on Griffiths Rd we have to stay in the right hand lane as it feeds traffic into the southern direction on Turton Rd. We can wait multiple light changes before we access Turton Rd – again, with pedestrians not walking all the way to traffic lights and walking across these busy roads.

Once on Turton Rd the traffic moves almost at a walking pace as people look to drop off passengers, seek parking and inevitably get stopped by a red light at both the Young & Turton Rds intersection and the pedestrian traffic lights I mentioned previously. Even when we arrive at the entry into the hockey centre, it’s so difficult to drive across the footpath into our parking area, as the footpath has a non-stop stream of pedestrians walking from the southern end of the road. I’m surprised there have not been any serious accidents arising from all this mayhem.

The area is already a traffic hotspot, with significant issues for both motorists, pedestrians and local residents. In addition, patrons taking up all parking provided for local businesses such as Broadmeadow Medical Clinic (which operates extended evening hours & seven days a week), Vet Vision veterinary clinic (again, needing carparks available at all hours), Red Cross Blood Bank (open seven days a week until 7pm), etc must have a detrimental effect on their trade. Now a Woolworths Supermarket has been approved in the immediate location of the aforementioned businesses.

I am not aware of any attempt to minimise or mitigate these issues for all parties involved, be they sports patrons, local residents, local businesses or passing motorists. Whilst I understand that Newcastle Basketball requires a new venue, I strongly object to any additional sports centre, function centre or any other development being built on the community ovals, as it will only exacerbate the current problems in this location.

I have no doubt that local residents find themselves in an intolerable and stressful environment on game days. In addition, those on the southern side of the stormwater drain next to the ovals have experienced major flooding and even the drowning of a local person in the stormwater drain. Their streets are too narrow for emergency vehicles to access them when the whole area is overtaken by patrons’ vehicles because of the existing lack of parking. To compound this problem by approving another sports centre that will attract over 25,000 patrons per week with little to no on-site parking would be utter madness and show nothing but contempt toward local residents.

The three current sporting clubs who use the ovals will have to relocate over half an hour away from where their players live. This will no doubt result in children having to drop out of their sport as they cannot walk to training and, if parents are working, the everyday gridlock of traffic on the way to and from Beresfield and Tarro will be too big an ask for many to endure.

The effect on Lambton High School and its students, for all time, will be insurmountable. The school was built next to the ovals and have been leased for over fifty years for students to enjoy outdoor activities, recreation and sport during school hours. The other two adjoining ovals near the high school have high fences around them, are locked to the public and Newcastle Council has stated that they are unable to be used by the high school. There are nearly 1,200 students at this school. The effect on the high school would be a travesty for the lifetime of the school. Add to the loss of the ovals, the 17 metre high building that will be constructed next to their classrooms, the year or two of daily construction noise whilst classes are conducted, and the whole proposal appears to have insurmountable issues.

I ask that you refuse the development for the reasons given above, and no doubt many more reasons raised by those more seriously affected by the proposal.

Basketball in Newcastle has a long and proud history. The current state of the facilities that exist at Broadmeadow are embarrassing, there are "dead spots" where the wood has lost contact with the beams below and the ball doesn't bounce, we have been washed out of games due to the roof leaking and there is a lot of dust generally which makes the court surface unsafe and unhygienic.

A new basketball facility would drive participation, invite exhibition matches for NBL and other leagues and boost the profile of the city as a sporting destination.

There are pros and cons to all development but this is one that must move forward.

Basketball facilities in the Hunter are not sufficient to support the growing demand for the sport. Other regional areas (including Tamworth and Port Macquarie) have excellent facilities which allow them to host major basketball tournaments which brings tourism into the region.

Currently the basketball facilities at Broadmeadow are not capable of meeting demands and people are being turned away from the sport. With the unpredictable weather basketball is becoming even more popular due to being an indoor sport. The region needs facilities to support this growth.

As a parent of a basketball player, the stadium is well and truely overdue. Players in summer have to put up with silver snarking dropping on players in hot weather and when it rains the building leaks and in extreme weather basketball is cancelled. For young players due to such low number of courts available in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie area means that young children are playing games started at 8.25 at night (often a Friday night) meaning working parents are not getting home until after 9.30. This would not happen in Sydney.

I am a 17 year old basket ball player and have been for the past 5 years. Newcastle needs a new stadium, we have so much interest in this town for basketball at all ages and levels it would be a major issue if there was no stadium at all after the lease runs out at Broadmeadow. The sport has only grown since I started playing with outdoor basketball courts popping up all over the city which is great but for games you can't play on concrete it's not safe or easy on the body. This is the last hope for this submission to go through as there is no where else the new stadium could move to. It would also be amazing to see an NBL team based in Newcastle RIGHT??!?!!!! For the future of Newcastle sport and basketball lovers everywhere this is a well thought out and addressed site and plan.

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