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Court battle: Kay O’Connell
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Wakatipu Netball is locking horns with council events body Lakes Leisure over a claimed clash of bookings.
The annual competition begins at the Events Centre this weekend – four weeks later than usual.
Netball secretary Kay O’Connell blames Lakes Leisure for taking conflicting conference and event bookings which cut the comp from 16 weeks to 12.
“We can’t go somewhere else – we need [the Events Centre] indoor courts,” O’Connell says.
Don’t blame us, Lakes Leisure communications boss Rachelle Greene says, denying the netballers were “blocked out” for all of April.
“We even cleared out a basketball competition on April 9 so she could have those dates – then she changed her mind and said she didn’t want them.”
O’Connell isn’t budging from what she says.
Trying to make their season’s bookings in January, the netballers found they’d be blocked out for April 9’s basketball and April 23 for Easter, she says.
“We weren’t going to start at the beginning of April as we normally do then stop and have two weeks out.”
O’Connell is surprised Lakes Leisure claims it bumped the basketballers – she says Lakes Leisure told her the basketballers didn’t confirm their initial booking.
The netballers will be bumped from the inside courts for two conferences in May and for Winter Festival, O’Connell says.
“I just want to make sure it’s not going to get worse. When you run a weekly Saturday comp you want to be able to do it weekly.”
The netballers pay Lakes Leisure $4000 a year for the two indoor courts. Previously the fee was $10,000.
“I’d rather pay $10,000 and be guaranteed usage,” O’Connell says.
Greene: “The Events Centre’s always been a multi-purpose facility so we’re always trying to strike that balance between com-munity sport and accommodating events.”
O’Connell says she’ll talk to mayor Vanessa van Uden.
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