I would like to take this opportunity to reassure our community about the future of Pontville Park. There have been a lot of recent misunderstandings around the search by AFL Tasmania for the AFL High-Performance Centre location.

Brighton Council has been in discussions with AFL Tasmania regarding a possible location for the centre, along with other Greater Hobart councils. Council is always open to having conversations with proponents when potential opportunities like this arise, naturally with the best interests of our communities in mind at all times. All of our discussions with AFL Tasmania have been in the context of other sites in southern Tasmania being considered, not just Brighton.

We have had discussions with the Pontville Users Group, including the Brighton Show Society, and advised them that it is very early days and that other sites outside of the Brighton municipality are in the mix.

Most importantly, we assured the Pontville Users Group at meetings specifically regarding this proposal, that if anything did progress further and any of the users of the Pontville facilities were to be affected, that we would ensure they should be no worse off at the current facility or at any alternative site.

We absolutely welcome further conversations with any users who still have concerns, so that we can clarify the situation and alleviate any fears, such as those expressed by the Brighton Show Society in recent times.

We stand by our commitment that no user should be any worse off should a proposal of this nature progress further.

As with any project of this nature, there would be full community consultation prior to any decisions being made to move forward.

Our Council will always make decisions that benefit our community. This project is valued at $70 million and will create many jobs (up to 150 employees), no matter where it is built. The project is set to be an economic driver for any community lucky enough to be able to take it on.

Brighton Council is not at the top of the list for sites being considered and we are not expecting to be successful but as a Council, we are always keen to look at projects and development that benefit our community and provide economic growth to our residents and local businesses but definitely not at the cost of our community’s overall health and wellbeing.

Brighton Mayor Leigh Gray