Basketball lovers will soon have access to more courts after Franklin Local Board made a one-off grant to improve facilities at nearby Tuakau College.
The move will allow courts to be marked and hoops to be added to cope with the overflow from the Franklin region, where basketball facilities are in short supply.
"We know we have a gap in supply and demand in access to facilities for football and basketball in particular," board chair Angela Fulljames says. "That’s restricting participation in those sports."
Football will also get help, with a grant to allow Pukekohe Association Football Club to use the astroturf at Pukekohe High School.
"It makes a lot of sense to have third-party facilities that can be better used, brought into service," Ms Fulljames says.
"For a few thousand dollars we can have courts up and running at Tuakau, whereas if we had to build more courts somewhere, what would that cost, and how long would it take?"
The board has budgeted $30,000 under its Locally Driven Initiatives operations budget to investigate access to third-party sport and recreation facilities.
It will spend up to $8000 to improve astroturf access at Pukekohe High School and have a portaloo available, and up to $2800 at Tuakau College on basketball.
The remaining $19,200 will be transferred to the Franklin Local Board Community Grants Fund.
Within Franklin, there are private and Ministry of Education facilities that are not used as fully as they could be, and the board wants to contribute, if owners will make them available, so that they are fully used before new ones are planned and built.
Access to third-party facilities is becoming more common as pressure on council-owned facilities increases.
