INTERNAL staffing issues and a pending sign off from privately contracted fire safety engineers are the reasons given for a delay in the opening of the $12.9 million basketball stadium expansion in Wangaratta.
Wangaratta council showcased a preseason match between NBL teams South East Melbourne and Brisbane on the redeveloped show court at the stadium in late August attracting 1000 people, but since then the facility has been off limits until an occupancy permit is authorised.
When asked by this masthead about specifics around why the basketball court facility is not available to the public yet, Rural City of Wangaratta director sustainability and culture Stephen Swart said there was no one part of the project that is causing the delay but he doubled down on fire safety requirements as the reason.
"People might focus in on one aspect but it's not as simple as that and the entire project needs to be considered against the state requirements of the code," he said.
Mr Swart said "there are a few question marks about aspects of the building project" and this partly stems from a changeover of surveyor staff since the beginning of the project.
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He said this has impacted the continuity in knowledge and context with the project which has caused delays.
"We employed a building surveyor when the project started and that surveyor has left council through the normal process of people coming and going," he said.
"We had to bring some new people along for the project and also make sure the project was fully understood.
"There were some question marks around whether all the safety requirements were met."
It's up to council employed building surveyors to sign off on the project and they depend on the advice from others.
Delays have also arisen as the council surveyor is working with two sets of fire safety engineers and advice from these parties is still pending.
"The way it works is that we have a set of fire engineers who prepare the report and a second set of fire engineers who review that report and certify that it's correct," Mr Swart explained.
"The work takes time and because we have two sets (of fire engineers) involved they need to work through interpretations of different parts of the code and that has taken time and it's still taking time.
"We are going through a process to make sure it meets the requirements under the building code of Australia and part of that is fire safety measures.
"There is nothing [specific] that has triggered a delay, it's about general compliance."
Mr Swart said council's biggest challenge at the moment is working out how much longer this is going to take but he was unable to answer that question.
"If I start guessing I will create expectation and I don't want to do that," he said.
Wangaratta Basketball Association president Adam Maher said he's been fielding questions from the community several times a day.
The delay has had a major impact on the Wangaratta basketball community with training, matches, tournaments, and potential events being relocated or missed altogether.
"The impact on basketball in Wangaratta is massive and it's affected the Warriors CBL side as this was a program that disappeared," he said.
"Basketball Victoria wanted to have the grand final at Wangaratta on December 14, but it appears we've missed out on that now.
"Our tournament this year will have to be played in Wodonga and due to an absence of information I will have to book the March 2025 tournament in Wodonga as well.
"We've had to run our domestic competition over one extra night and we've had to use Galen facilities.
"Our training regime for the Warriors is stretched to the max because we haven't had enough court space."
Mr Maher said the North East Bushrangers training program has also been hindered, putting stress on other facilities and training schedules.
A $5.46m State Government Community Sports Infrastructure Stimulus Fund grant enabled the project that had an initial completion date of November 2023.
