By Lia Spencer
THE biggest battle at Officer Recreation Reserve recently was not between two sporting teams, but between SP AusNet and the local footy club.
Officer Junior Football Club President Paul Taylor said road and electrical works by SP Aus Net on 15 June caused major frustrations in the lead up to Sunday, when ten teams were scheduled to play.
Mr Taylor said the club secretary was lucky to receive the mail a fortnight in advance notifying them of the scheduled work which would see the reserve without power, but he was frustrated when SP Aus Net refused to reschedule the works or use their own back-up generator so the sporting groups were not affected.
“It was lucky our secretary wasn’t on holidays and received the mail with the notifications, but it was very inconvenient and a lot of hard work for us to work around (SP Ausnet),” Mr Taylor said.
“SP AusNet were stubborn and said they couldn’t reschedule because there were schools near Starling Road that would otherwise be affected. It left us $200 out of pocket to hire a generator to keep the lights in the change-room and canteen and be operational for the day. Fortunately, we were well looked after (by a local business) and we got a great deal on the generator.”
A spokesperson for SP AusNet said the electricity outage was required to safety relocate powerpoles and powerlines at the Princes Highway and Starling Road intersection.
The work had been postponed once before and the spokesperson said it was essential to progress the road works that had been in progress for some weeks in the heart of Officer. “SP AusNet has several positive discussions with an Officer Football Reserve representative in the week preceding the outage, who was comfortable with hiring a generator as an agreed solution,” he said.
“The work was done on a Sunday so that the local school wasn’t impacted and to spare the community from frustrating weekday traffic delays.
“SP AusNet apologises for any inconvenience caused by the outage.”
Mr Taylor said he hoped future works by SP AusNet would not affect the club.
