City of Melville responds to claims from mayoral candidate that sporting clubs could have powers stripped

A City of Melville mayoral candidate believes a new sporting club policy could strip power from its members and enable leases to be stripped “at the will” of city officers.

Cr Clive Ross circulated emails to sporting groups this week titled “Be sure of your club’s future” and invited their representatives to hear more at a session he was scheduled to hold on Wednesday night at the Melville Bowling Club.

His email said the policy, which is currently in draft format, could authorise leases which “effectively remove control of the sports club from its members” and limit the ability to “raise funds necessary to run the club”.

Cr Ross also said leases could take control of “all commercial activity away from club management and transfer it to the city officers” or “expose clubs to lease termination at the will of city officers”.

The City of Melville this week confirmed the policy for sports clubs and community groups was being reviewed to redefine the leasing and licencing of city-owned and managed facilities.

But CEO Marten Tieleman denied it was intended to take power away from clubs.

“The policy focuses on ensuring good and fair governance of leasing and licencing of city-owned and managed sites for the community’s benefit as a whole,” he said in a statement.

“The draft policy does not remove the members’ control of their clubs or their ability to raise funds and does not take any control of commercial activity.

“The draft policy includes a 12-month notice period, which can be mutually beneficial in circumstances where facilities are redeveloped.”

Mr Tieleman said city staff and current elected members had been involved with the policy review so far.

Many sporting group leases related to Crown reserves and ministerial approval would be needed for any changes.

Speaking to PerthNow, Cr Ross stood by his claims of how the policy could significantly affect sporting clubs.

“(The policy) very clearly does have those implications,” he said.

“You can’t talk about not allowing commercial activity in a club and then say your policy isn’t going to control that.”

He also said the draft policy could limit clubs’ incomes.

“It’s not going to be helpful to clubs to have their revenue sources limited,” he said.

“The city should be looking at ways to make them viable and not putting barriers in place.”

Cr Ross said he was sharing the information because he wanted to “get the truth out there” and protect the interests of sporting and community groups.