I strongly support the proposed Hunter Indoor Sports Centre to go ahead and provide the Newcastle area with an updated modern sporting facility. The current basketball stadium has provided a venue for myself and my siblings to play ball as children, and now for my three children to play and learn to officiate basketball.

This deteriorated state of the current stadium has effected my children and their teams over the past 3 years or so. Games are cancelled, entire afternoon/evening schedules are cancelled due to flooding INSIDE the stadium. As a referee this has impacted my daughters work schedule and resulted in reduced pay. She has helped out on a number of occasions to sweep/mop inches of water out of the stadium, which leaked through the roof.
It is quite preposterous to realise that such a large regional city as Newcastle has a degraded, un-airconditioned old facility which has hosted National sporting events. Such as the Men's Deaf 3x3 Hustle.

I am opposed to the development at this location. I do believe that a new stadium should be built, however, I cannot support the stadium being built in this location.

I do not support for the following reasons:
- Lack of initial consultation and subsequent poor community consultation in determining the site.
- Loss of green space.
- Loss of playing space for other sporting codes
- Loss of amenity for nearby residents
- Loss of evacuation space, playing space, recreation space for Lambton High School. Lambton HS students will be severely impacted by this change.
- Severe flooding impacts, the current ovals act as flood overflow and the 90% concrete replacing will cause flooding impacts on nearby residents in Monash Rd, Gloucester Ave, Duke St, Marina Ave etc.
- Severe parking impacts on nearby residents and I explicitly oppose that nearby streets can and will absorb traffic overflow. This is far from reality.

- Traffic issues on Turton Rd from entry and exit of hundreds of vehicles to and from the stadium.

I wish to submit my strong objection to this sports centre being built on this location. My son plays basketball, and I am very aware of the need for a new stadium. However, these ovals are NOT the right location for several reasons.
LOSS OF GREEN SPACE
Three mornings a week I attend an early morning outdoor fitness class with Corefit Newcastle. We meet on the basketball courts at Lambton High and look out over the ovals. I see these ovals being used each morning by people walking, walking dogs, kicking balls and playing. Living locally, I also regularly see them being used by Lambton High School, sporting teams for training and games and other community events. Once this green space is gone it is gone forever. Green spaces within cities are precious resources and contribute to health and wellbeing.
TRAFFIC AND PARKING
I have several friends who live in the vicinity of the ovals. It is a nightmare to get in or out of their houses when there is something happening at the stadium. The proposed sports stadium only contains 220 car parks, yet it is predicted that during peak times there could be upwards of 500 people in attendance. These residential streets will struggle with so many cars trying to park in them. The plan for overspill parking to be at the football stadium will not work as there are regularly games where that won’t be possible, and they are talking about having up to 15 extra major events there on top of the regular Knights and Jets matches.
FLOODING
I am concerned for the residents who live nearby when there is heavy rain. I have seen that area flood numerous times over the years, and this situation will be made worse without grass to soak it up. I know some residents are struggling to find an insurance company who will insure them in that area and the cost of their premiums could rise significantly.
UNDER FUNDED
I am concerned that the basketball association simply doesn’t have the funds that it needs to build the kind of stadium that they are proposing. They have $30 million, yet $90 million is required to complete the full scope of the works in this location. It is not good enough to complete a partial build.

This facility is vital for the growth and development of community indoor sports in the region. It will be a multi sport, multi purpose facility and offer diversity for all ages, genders and sporting ability. It is long overdue and a necessary space moving forward in the region

That land should be use for something that will benefit the people from New Lambton. Something we can go to/use like a park with a playground. We are not interested in basketball. It is not going to bring anything positive to us. But instead, it will ruin a nice piece of green land/nature that we have.

Please see the attached document that details why I am opposed to this development.

Thank you.

As a local resident who has children attending Lambton High School and someone who has had involvement with sporting cubs, I would like to object to this proposed project.

As outlined below, I believe the EIS fails to provide evidence for many statements that are relied on to justify the development and that it lacks an adequate assessment of the community concerns. The flood modelling has not adequately assessed the increased the potential impacts of the development. The EIS also relies heavily on unsupported statements attributed to City of Newcastle (CN), e.g. that options for alternative sites have been evaluated, that the capacity of other sporting field has been evaluated and that other sporting clubs support the proposal. As such, it is impossible to test the veracity of these statements which mean that many of the arguments in support of the proposal are unsubstantiated. I have limited my specific comments to these few key issues.

1. Alternative sites
The document states that “well over a dozen sites’ were considered as alternatives for this project, yet no details are provided other than a brief mention of an RDA being lodged for a site at Hillsborough Road, Charlestown. As such, there is no supporting evidence provided for the statement that “Alternative sites that would be subject to private leasing arrangements are not feasible alternatives” (p. 29).

Similarly, in the summary of community views (p. 57), the issue of this development being in the wrong location is listed as a key issue, but the response of the application was that the site is underutilised. No evidence is provided for this statement and indeed the assumption seems to be that the only sporting teams could utilise the site. The major users of the site are Lambton High School (LHS) students and staff and the general public. The fact that LHS uses the site every day of the school week for subjects such as PE, PASS and SLR (the latter two being HSC subjects). In addition, students are told to use Wallarah oval at recess and lunch if they wish to run around or plat ball sports (e.g. soccer, AFL). In fact, the only large ball sport the children are permitted to play on the school premises is basketball, i.e. the school does not require any new basketball facilities especially when this would prevent them from participating in so many other activities.

The use of Wallarah ovals by the general public has also not been adequately acknowledged, not has the loss of green space and the consequences for community well being and the local environment (i.e. it is well established that build areas increase local temperatures on warm says due to the contribute to the ‘heat island effect’).

The applicants also respond to this issue (p. 57) by stating that CN has engaged with three local sporting clubs and claiming that they are supportive of the proposal. Again, no evidence for this is provided, e.g. the letters of support.

2. Loss of playing fields/open space
This issue is inadequately addressed. As stated above, there is no information provided on current usage and how this could be accommodated elsewhere, nor is there any assessment of the ramifications for the school. A footnote in one figure of the Landscape Masterplan suggests that there will be a 16 x 47 m area of green space available to the school and the public. This represents a 97% reduction in space, with the residual area being inadequate for many school activities. Although it is stated on p. 58 that BANL has committed to providing the school access to the indoor facilities (HISC), it is not clear that the remnant outdoor space will be able to be used by the school in the same way that the current Wallarah ovals are used, i.e. every school day for formal and informal sporting and play activities. Indeed, the school has indicated that this remnant green space will not be usable in the same way, not only due to the size, but also the lease arrangements by BANL.

There are also no details provided of what alternative sporting facilities will be available, nor how they could or would be improved.

3. Social impacts (p. 90)
Basketball NSW is cited as reporting that Newcastle’s participation rate in this sport is half that of other benchmark LGAs and well short of the city’s estimated ‘potential’. The EIS therefore uses a guesstimate about potential participation in basketball to justify removing space from other sports which are demonstrably more popular that basketball in Newcastle.

It is stated that “The HISC will provide increased opportunities for social engagement, support local community networks and create an inclusive environment for participants, volunteers and supporters”. There is absolutely no evidence provided to support this statement.

Indeed, the final dot point in this section predicts the complete opposite where it is stated “The proposal will reduce the open space available for local sporting clubs and Lambton High School as well as informal access by the community to the open space”. Given that the other local sports are more popular than basketball, this indicates there will be a net reduction in social engagement, etc.

4. Built environment (p. 102)
The effects of flooding have not been adequately addressed. The flood modelling (Appendix CC) does not include tidal influence (via Styx Creek / Lambton Ker-rai Creek) which, during high tides, can significantly increase the likelihood and severity of flooding. See recent work by NSW DCCEEW. The Flood Impact Assessment has not considered this. See also the paper by Hague & Talke (2004) [https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EF003993] which identified Newcastle as one of the most likely cities in Australia to reach 50d per year of flooding in the next 25 yrs. Replacing green space with hard surfaces, as per this proposal, will exacerbate this problem for the city.